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THE BOY, THE TROLL, AND THE CHALK

Name: THE BOY, THE TROLL, AND THE CHALK
Author: Anne Booth
ISBN: 9781536243970

by Anne Booth ; illustrated by David Litchfield ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 2025

A glowing reminder that patience, creativity, and kindness can quiet even the meanest of trolls.

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Creating art becomes an act of inclusion and friendship.

In a cave near a playground lives a “big fierce troll.” Children keep their distance—except for a pale-skinned, redheaded boy who asks the troll to come out. When the troll rebuffs his invitation, he tries another tactic. Gathering chalk, the boy draws incomplete pictures, including a flower with a missing petal and a tailless dog—tacit encouragement for the troll to participate. The artistic breadcrumbs pay off, and the troll is coaxed out of the cave but still remains gruff. In a last-ditch attempt at friendship, the boy draws himself with his hand extended. The next day he returns to find an image of himself hand in hand with a “big scary troll.” “But you’re not a troll,” he says. “You’re a boy—just like me.” He redraws the troll, depicting a smiling, brown-haired, pale-skinned youngster. Now that the troll’s true self has been revealed, the two begin to draw and are soon joined by other kids, all varying in skin tone. Litchfield’s illustrations are luminous, colorful, and tremendously appealing. More literal readers may be confused about the boy/troll in the cave: Does he live there? Is he just in a bad mood? But there’s comfort to be found in the message of seeing and being seen, of showing up, and the inclusive power of art.

A glowing reminder that patience, creativity, and kindness can quiet even the meanest of trolls. (Picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025

ISBN: 9781536243970

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Templar/Candlewick

Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025

Categories:

CHILDREN'S DRAGONS & MYTHICAL CREATURES | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
A SHELTER FOR SADNESS
by Anne Booth ; illustrated by David Litchfield

- BOOK REVIEW
THE CHRISTMAS FAIRY
by Anne Booth ; illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FAIRIEST FAIRY
by Anne Booth ; illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw

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LOVE FROM THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 2015

Safe to creep on by.

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Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.

In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.

Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE FOOD?
edited by Eric Carle

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE BUG?
edited by Eric Carle

- BOOK REVIEW
MY FIRST I SEE YOU
by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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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)