An immersive, sharp-eyed appreciation of family bonds.
A young girl waits for the things that she wants.
Emilia dreams of material pleasures. She wishes for sugary cereal instead of toasted tortillas for breakfast, and she longs for a big house, a new car, and her own bed (she and Mom share one). Her mother takes her shopping at the “bargain-basement store”; Emilia wishes she could buy stylish new clothes, but Mom carefully selects a few things for layaway. Emilia is discouraged—there’s always “too much want and not enough money to fill it up.” The layaway waits while Emilia’s mother toils away; images suggest that she works in a housekeeping role. The girl admires Mom’s commitment and does her part by tucking her sleeping mother in on the couch. When her mom can pick up the clothes, her relief and happiness are palpable, as Emilia watches her mother twirl in a breezy blue sundress, “beautiful [and] beaming.” Medina celebrates the dignity of work and the strength of parental devotion while also considering poverty’s discomforts—Mama’s “bare and blistered hands,” “apartments…with no room to breathe” and the “smell of plastic” in the store. When Emilia’s mama dances, “glittering like the warm sun,” the moment provides a powerful contrast that does not downplay those truths. Mora’s illustrations blur the boundaries between reality and Emilia’s interior imaginings—an effective depiction of a child’s experience of the world. Emilia and her mother are brown-skinned and Latine.
An immersive, sharp-eyed appreciation of family bonds. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 9, 2026
ISBN: 9780593905227
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House Studio
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
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
BOOK REVIEW
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
