A funny, heartfelt, and respectful tale of a child grappling with sensory sensitivity.
A girl learns to cope with her aversion to parties.
When Dora’s friend Rashid invites her to his birthday party, she doesn’t want to go. She’s already been to a party and found it overwhelming. Dora’s mother encourages her to attend, saying that she’ll have fun and see all her friends—a claim Dora finds both suspect and unappealing. Although she produces a litany of excuses, ranging from a gorilla stealing her party clothes to a multitude of fake injuries, her mother insists that she try it out. As predicted, the party makes Dora miserable—that is, until she crawls under the table and discovers a boy who, like her, prefers a quiet atmosphere. Thanks to Tom, Dora enjoys herself so much that the next time she’s invited to a party, she goes willingly just to see her new friend. This book’s clever design, inspired use of typeface, lighthearted illustrations, and wonderfully silly text combine for an accessible entry point to a serious topic. The author provides a workable coping mechanism for introverted and neurodiverse party guests while honoring and accepting varied perspectives. While the protagonist’s mother initially seems to ignore her concerns, by the end it’s clear that she wasn’t trying to force Dora into attending the party but rather simply wanted to give the child a chance to make her own decision. Dora is light-skinned, Rashid and Tom are brown-skinned, and the other partygoers are diverse.
A funny, heartfelt, and respectful tale of a child grappling with sensory sensitivity. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781623711146
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crocodile/Interlink
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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