A glowing reminder that patience, creativity, and kindness can quiet even the meanest of trolls.
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
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 wandering effort, happy but pointless.
The perfect book for kids who love dragons and mild tacos.
Rubin’s story starts with an incantatory edge: “Hey, kid! Did you know that dragons love tacos? They love beef tacos and chicken tacos. They love really big gigantic tacos and tiny little baby tacos as well.” The playing field is set: dragons, tacos. As a pairing, they are fairly silly, and when the kicker comes in—that dragons hate spicy salsa, which ignites their inner fireworks—the silliness is sillier still. Second nature, after all, is for dragons to blow flames out their noses. So when the kid throws a taco party for the dragons, it seems a weak device that the clearly labeled “totally mild” salsa comes with spicy jalapenos in the fine print, prompting the dragons to burn down the house, resulting in a barn-raising at which more tacos are served. Harmless, but if there is a parable hidden in the dragon-taco tale, it is hidden in the unlit deep, and as a measure of lunacy, bridled or unbridled, it doesn’t make the leap into the outer reaches of imagination. Salmieri’s artwork is fitting, with a crabbed, ethereal line work reminiscent of Peter Sís, but the story does not offer it enough range.
A wandering effort, happy but pointless. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 14, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-8037-3680-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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