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FEELING GOOD

Name: FEELING GOOD
Author: Anthony Newley
ISBN: 9781250451125

by Anthony Newley & Leslie Bricusse ; illustrated by Tim Hopgood ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 20, 2026

An uplifting ode to the vivifying effects of the great outdoors.

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A classic tune from the 1960s gets the picture-book treatment.

“Birds flying high, / you know how I feel… // Sun in the sky, / you know how I feel… // Breeze drifting on by, / you know how I feel… // It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, / it’s a new life for me… / and I’m feeling good!” The lyrics to the titular song are scattered across illustrations of an all-smiles brown-skinned child with free-flowing black hair who spends a summer day enjoying nature: running through ocean waves as birds fly overhead, swinging high on a swing as a beaming sun looks on, riding a bike by the sea, and so on. This is the rare song-lyrics-as-text picture book that doesn’t depend on readers knowing the source material (and in this case they probably won’t). While the song has repetitive elements (“you know how I feel…”), they enhance rather than bog down the reading experience, with credit going to the variation in the imagery by Hopgood, a veteran illustrator of classic-song lyrics. Here his brushy, sun-kissed, collagelike art makes even the lyrical repetitions seem like fresh lines of poetry. Newley and Bricusse’s song has been covered often over the decades, its most popular interpreter Nina Simone, who has a deserved claim on it; now Hopgood does, too.

An uplifting ode to the vivifying effects of the great outdoors. (“Feeling Good” lyrics, QR code to listen to the song) (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2026

ISBN: 9781250451125

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Godwin Books

Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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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)

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Jim Valeri

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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

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FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

by Marilyn Sadler ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2024

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.

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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)