A fun, quirky little story about thriving individuality and social integration.
In Torgan-Randall’s picture book, a duck-obsessed girl makes a friend at summer camp after she learns how to listen to others.
Margaret, depicted as a white-skinned, brown-haired girl (rather in the Charlie Brown mold), prefers to be called Ducky. She is obsessed with ducks, and, while attending camp, she works duck facts into every conversation and activity, often talking over her peers (and even the counselor). No one else is much interested, and one boy in particular—red-haired Marvin[4]—loses patience with Margaret’s garrulous duck fixation. “YOU ARE NOT A DUCK! YOU ARE MARGARET!” he tells her. Margaret is momentarily saddened, but she cheers up for the learn-to-swim activity. There, she lends her duck-shaped float-aid to Marvin. Her duck knowledge proves useful, and, more importantly, she learns about Marvin’s own obsession: rocks. Now that their interaction is less one-sided, Margaret and Marvin become friends. Torgan-Randall narrates Margaret’s tale in straightforward, non-rhyming prose, arranging pictures and text so that dialogue appears in natural blank spaces near the speaker. The present-tense constructions and faux-handwritten font lend a sense of immediacy. Torgan-Randall’s illustrations, which are hand-drawn and then digitally refined, evoke the open, ingenuous existence of young children. The campers are ethnically diverse, and all of the characters display distinct personalities (even Bill, the duck float-aid). A pre-story checklist of questions encourages readers to think about listening, communication, and friendship.
A fun, quirky little story about thriving individuality and social integration.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781945369759
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Cardinal Rule Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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
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