A lighthearted fantasy rhyming picture book perfect for the emergent young reader.
A school-aged boy learns to face his fear of monsters in Fleming’s picture book.
Henry, a young boy with light skin and brown hair, is afraid of the dark. While he gets ready for bed, he checks his bedroom closely and declares, “Now that it’s dark, / and I feel kind of sleepy, / I search through my bedroom for anything creepy.” After Henry’s mother lovingly tucks him into bed and turns out the light, Henry tries to sleep, but when he opens one eye, he sees a shadow of a monster on the wall that’s “hairy and big,” and “at least six feet tall!” Instead of panicking or calling his parents, Henry recognizes that his fear of monsters is all in his head, allowing him to control the imaginary creature so it’s not so frightening anymore: “If I made up this beast, if he’s not here at all, / I can make my own rules, I can make him real small.” Fleming writes in effective rhyming stanzas that show how realistic the fear of the dark at bedtime may be for many youngsters. Geyer’s colorful illustrations show Henry’s evolving emotional journey, first as happy at playtime, then apprehensive at nightfall, and sad the next morning.
A lighthearted fantasy rhyming picture book perfect for the emergent young reader.Pub Date: May 7, 2026
ISBN: 9798988910992
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Kahu Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre.
Ice princess Lina must navigate family and school in this early chapter read.
The family picnic is today. This is not a typical gathering, since Lina’s maternal relatives are a royal family of Windtamers who have power over the weather and live in castles floating on clouds. Lina herself is mixed race, with black hair and a tan complexion like her Asian-presenting mother’s; her Groundling father appears to be a white human. While making a grand entrance at the castle of her grandfather, the North Wind, she fails to successfully ride a gust of wind and crashes in front of her entire family. This prompts her stern grandfather to ask that Lina move in with him so he can teach her to control her powers. Desperate to avoid this, Lina and her friend Claudia, who is black, get Lina accepted at the Hilltop Science and Arts Academy. Lina’s parents allow her to go as long as she does lessons with grandpa on Saturdays. However, fitting in at a Groundling school is rough, especially when your powers start freak winter storms! With the story unfurling in diary format, bright-pink–highlighted grayscale illustrations help move the plot along. There are slight gaps in the storytelling and the pacing is occasionally uneven, but Lina is full of spunk and promotes self-acceptance.
A jam-packed opener sure to satisfy lovers of the princess genre. (Fantasy. 5-8)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-35393-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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