A charming story that encourages children to use their imaginations.
In Odusanya’s picture book, two cousins learn a valuable lesson about creativity.
A tan-skinned child named Amelia appears disorganized—her messy bedroom is a riot of loose crayons, fabrics, and yarn. But Amelia is an artist with unstoppable drive, using “every LOOSE PART imaginable” in her work. While Amelia struggles to clean her room, her Auntie Teya and her cousin Jayce arrive, ready for their camping trip. The thrill of the outing is blunted when they discover that the campsite’s now missing its playground. While looking out at the empty site, Amelia notices that the park is packed with “giant loose parts” everywhere, from scattered leaves to logs. The cousins set out to design their own “teeter-totter,” but they don’t stop there—they can re-create the entire playground, complete with a slide and a new swing, making everything by hand. There’s a touching moment of discovery when the cousins realize that “The WORLD is our playground, we just have to CREATE it.” Later, Amelia, with the help of her parents, finally organizes her bedroom’s array of “loose parts” by creating “a HOME for every piece.” The engaging text includes a section with advice for aiding a child’s development by incorporating everyday items into playtime. Youngsters will be enthralled by Medonza’s stunning digital illustrations—especially the images of stars—which create moments packed with childish wonder and energy.
A charming story that encourages children to use their imaginations.Pub Date: May 12, 2026
ISBN: 9781739007096
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Sunshine and Rain Co.
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.
The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”
Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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