An imaginative, deeply satisfying odyssey.
An underground detour allows a girl to better understand herself and her big brother.
“My name is Yuki. I have a terrible temper.” The young narrator believes that her rudeness and tendency to burst into tears are the reasons her brother, Shen, doesn’t like her. After picking her up from school and handing her the house keys, he “sulks silently inside his hood, like a caterpillar in a cocoon.” Frustrated, Yuki throws the keys down a manhole but instantly regrets her actions. She descends a long ladder to the bottom, where she meets the titular mud princess—a lumpy brown tour guide, dripping with dirt and with twigs instead of hair, but with a welcoming demeanor. In the best tradition of enlightening literary journeys, the duo pass through the Wicked Woods, Lake Youbegone, and the Grumporium. Each setting is wondrous, the earthy palette incorporating shimmering blues and textured mixed-media patterns. Comic relief comes in various forms, among them the smelly, mean Boogers that trail after them. As she travels with Her Royal Muddiness, Yuki learns some profound truths about family and emotion: “When people get angry, they take it out on the things they love.” Tenderness undergirds Yuki and Shen’s ensuing reunion. Alemagna’s narrative employs lovely alliteration, striking figurative language, subtle exchanges between characters, and delightful images to probe the siblings’ complex emotions while allowing readers to discern meaning for themselves. Human characters are pale-skinned and dark-haired.
An imaginative, deeply satisfying odyssey. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9781662641305
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Hippo Park/Astra Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child...
Imani endures the insults heaped upon her by the other village children, but she never gives up her dreams.
The Masai girl is tiny compared to the other children, but she is full of imagination and perseverance. Luckily, she has a mother who believes in her and tells her stories that will fuel that imagination. Mama tells her about the moon goddess, Olapa, who wins over the sun god. She tells Imani about Anansi, the trickster spider who vanquishes a larger snake. (Troublingly, the fact that Anansi is a West African figure, not of the Masai, goes unaddressed in both text and author’s note.) Inspired, the tiny girl tries to find new ways to achieve her dream: to touch the moon. One day, after crashing to the ground yet again when her leafy wings fail, she is ready to forget her hopes. That night, she witnesses the adumu, the special warriors’ jumping dance. Imani wakes the next morning, determined to jump to the moon. After jumping all day, she reaches the moon, meets Olapa and receives a special present from the goddess, a small moon rock. Now she becomes the storyteller when she relates her adventure to Mama. The watercolor-and-graphite illustrations have been enhanced digitally, and the night scenes of storytelling and fantasy with their glowing stars and moons have a more powerful impact than the daytime scenes, with their blander colors.
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child to be admired. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-934133-57-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Mackinac Island Press
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
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