A warm, emotional tale, replete with comfort and acceptance, this secular selection is a strong choice for a child dealing...
A little girl grieves her beloved dog.
Sammy was a hound dog—possibly the best in the world. He loved his girl, and she loved him. Painter Wyeth’s realistic, evocative watercolors show Sammy and the girl sharing good times together, playing dress-up, sleeping curled up and blowing and chasing bubbles. When Sammy is diagnosed with an untreatable illness, the girl has to accept that they don’t have much time left. Her parents are gentle and kind and offer explanations to help the girl with her impending loss, but when Sammy dies, she is bereft. Sensitive, graceful text depicts her pain and traces her journey through dreams and thoughts as she finds ways of coping that help her to remember Sammy and celebrate his life. Sammy is still around the family in memory, and the girl catches a glimpse of a cloud that looks like him as the family blows bubbles on the beach and shares stories about their friend. Without anthropomorphizing, Wyeth gives coonhound Sammy all the personality a dog could want; the little girl is a latter-day Sal, complete with overalls.
A warm, emotional tale, replete with comfort and acceptance, this secular selection is a strong choice for a child dealing with death for the first time. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4927-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2011
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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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
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