We were all strangers, once, so howdy, stranger.
The arrival of a stranger—“the Thing”—roils the placid waters of Edmond the Squirrel and George Owl’s day.
This kid-sized narrative touches on Ryszard Kapuscynski’s notion of “the Other.” Edmond the Squirrel and his friend George Owl are down by the stream gathering feathers, moss, twigs, and pine cones. The still air is broken by a strange sound: “SKRAWK.” They look up and see a…well, a Thing: a small haystack of pink fur. Doesn’t matter that the Thing looks like a plush toy, it gives Edmond and George the collywobbles (“This is clearly a very dangerous Thing,” hoots George), and they beat a retreat. Back at Edmond’s, they gorge on green cookies to muster their bravery, which brings out the worst in Edmond. He paints a sign of the Thing’s image with a big X through it and plants it streamside. Desbordes does not soften the unfortunate turns of xenophobia. George wakes the next day still abuzz with the bravery of the green cookies and decides to see if the Thing is still there, but not before disguising himself in a cloak of moss, a chanterelle for a nose, and white pine ear tuffs. He scares the bejesus out of his friends, including Edmond—but not, critically, the Thing. And what sparks friendship? A cookie, the universal language.
We were all strangers, once, so howdy, stranger. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-59270-217-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2017
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
A solid if message-driven conversation starter about the hard parts of learning.
Children realize their dreams one step at a time in this story about growth mindset.
A child crashes and damages a new bicycle on a dark, rainy day. Attempting a wheelie, the novice cyclist falls onto the sidewalk, grimacing, and, having internalized this setback as failure, vows to never ride again but to “walk…forever.” Then the unnamed protagonist happens upon a glowing orb in the forest, a “thought rearranger-er”—a luminous pink fairy called the Magical Yet. This Yet reminds the child of past accomplishments and encourages perseverance. The second-person rhyming couplets remind readers that mistakes are part of learning and that with patience and effort, children can achieve. Readers see the protagonist learn to ride the bike before a flash-forward shows the child as a capable college graduate confidently designing a sleek new bike. This book shines with diversity: racial, ethnic, ability, and gender. The gender-indeterminate protagonist has light brown skin and exuberant curly locks; Amid the bustling secondary cast, one child uses a prosthesis, and another wears hijab. At no point in the text is the Yet defined as a metaphor for a growth mindset; adults reading with younger children will likely need to clarify this abstract lesson. The artwork is powerful and detailed—pay special attention to the endpapers that progress to show the Yet at work.
A solid if message-driven conversation starter about the hard parts of learning. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-368-02562-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion/LBYR
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
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