An empowering, imaginative tale that simplifies the journey to becoming carefree.
A little girl learns to overcome her terrible worries in this empowering but simplistic picture book.
Zayny, a light-brown skinned girl with curly brown hair, is a huge worrier. She worries about germs and time, worms and limes. She worries about dreams before she falls asleep. Weather, being dirty, imaginary monsters, bee stings, hangnails, and people saying mean things are all on her long list of apprehensions. She decides to take matters into her own hands: “Get out of my thoughts and out of my head! / Out of my dreams and from under my bed!” she tells her troubles. It’s the beginning of a new Zayny: Without her worries, she can have adventures and fun, and she can finally let herself be happy. Monet’s rhyming text ably captures many of the things that young worriers might fret about, some realistic and others far-fetched. However, young readers who share Zayny’s early anxious attitudes may scoff at how easily she sends her imagined problems packing. The illustrations depict the worries in various forms, but frequently as large, hairy monsters that hold Zayny helpless; the huge forms make Zayny appear smaller on the page, despite her cool clothing and hair styles and her huge eyes. Monet’s digital paintings are eye-catching, and though Zayny appears shiny and doll-like in some illustrations, her emotions shine through to reflect the text, both in her worry and once she is worry free.
An empowering, imaginative tale that simplifies the journey to becoming carefree.Pub Date: July 1, 2016
ISBN: 9780692749197
Page Count: 44
Publisher: Fifth Wonder Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 10, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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