ARE WE THERE, YETI?

Name: ARE WE THERE, YETI?
Author: Ashlyn Anstee
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3089-0

by Ashlyn Anstee ; illustrated by Ashlyn Anstee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 21, 2015

A nifty take on the perennial question “Are we there, yet(i)?” and a prerequisite read-aloud before a first class field trip

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Good things come to those who wait.

A colorful, multiracial class greets Yeti, the bus driver: “Where are we going, Yeti?” “It’s a surprise!” he announces. And so everyone piles into a school bus for a ride down what appears to be a never-ending road. They traverse a variety of bright landscapes: a packed city playground; a sandy stretch where children and animals play and grown-ups lie belly-up under beach umbrellas; a mountainside adorned with skiing ducks and a sleeping unicorn. Different countrysides emerge with every spread. At a point when the class declares hunger, thirst, boredom, and a need for bathroom stops, Yeti finally announces that they have indeed arrived. But they can’t be in the right place. Their puzzling destination is still, cold, and white—the obverse of the bustling landscapes they’ve crossed. “This is it?” asks an apprehensive boy—and then a group of young yetis emerge from their cave. The class, now wearing mittens and each paired up with a yeti buddy, frolics in the snow. One set forms snow angels; another builds a snow-yeti, while another group initiates a snowball fight. Employing a combination of expressive illustrations and simple dialogue in bubbles, Anstee delivers a simple, satisfying, if low-key debut.

A nifty take on the perennial question “Are we there, yet(i)?” and a prerequisite read-aloud before a first class field trip . (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: July 21, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4814-3089-0

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

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BOOP THE SNOOT
by Ashlyn Anstee ; illustrated by Ashlyn Anstee

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LITTLE NARWHAL, NOT ALONE
by Tiffany Stone ; illustrated by Ashlyn Anstee

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TIDE POOL TROUBLES
by Ashlyn Anstee ; illustrated by Ashlyn Anstee

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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

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
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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CLAYMATES

by Dev Petty ; illustrated by Lauren Eldridge ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 20, 2017

The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...

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Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay.

A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive. A pair of hands descends, and soon, amid a flurry of squishing and prodding and poking and sculpting, a handsome gray wolf and a stately brown owl emerge. The hands disappear, leaving the friends to their own devices. The owl is pleased, but the wolf convinces it that the best is yet to come. An ear pulled here and an extra eye placed there, and before you can shake a carving stick, a spurt of frenetic self-exploration—expressed as a tangled black scribble—reveals a succession of smug hybrid beasts. After all, the opportunity to become a “pig-e-phant” doesn’t come around every day. But the sound of approaching footsteps panics the pair of Picassos. How are they going to “fix [them]selves” on time? Soon a hippopotamus and peacock are staring bug-eyed at a returning pair of astonished hands. The creative naiveté of the “clay mates” is perfectly captured by Petty’s feisty, spot-on dialogue: “This was your idea…and it was a BAD one.” Eldridge’s endearing sculpted images are photographed against the stark white background of an artist’s work table to great effect.

The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted fun of their own . (Picture book. 5-8)