by Betsy Devany ; illustrated by Christopher Denise ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 27, 2016
There is no child who won’t empathize with Lucy and cheer for her reunion with Smelly Baby.
A lost-and–found-again doll brings together the members of a family.
Devany takes several spreads to set up Smelly Baby’s back story. She is one of the white redhead’s 17 dolls, all with similarly interesting monikers and many of color, but she is the titular lovey and also white. She’s the only one to sleep on Lucy’s bed, and she goes everywhere with the preschooler. And although her name came from her original peppermint smell, it’s now fitting for an altogether different reason, especially after Grandma Nell’s dog, Stasher, gets hold of her, which is why, on the car trip home, she gets lost while being held out the window to “air,” her still-stinky arm the only part Lucy is left holding. Despite her preteen attitude, big sister Ivy is very helpful in trying to help Lucy come to terms with her doll’s loss. But then, all too soon it seems, based on the lengthy lead-up, Smelly Baby arrives in the mail along with a letter containing a sentence that may save other lost dolls: “How smart of you to write your name and address on her tummy!” She’s also freshly laundered. Lucy and Smelly Baby do their best to rectify that. Denise’s vignette and full-page illustrations portray the magical relationship between a young girl and her lovey, and the facial expressions, especially Ivy’s, are spot-on.
There is no child who won’t empathize with Lucy and cheer for her reunion with Smelly Baby. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62779-147-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2016
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016
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
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by Tom Percival ; illustrated by Tom Percival ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019
A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their...
Ruby is an adventurous and happy child until the day she discovers a Worry.
Ruby barely sees the Worry—depicted as a blob of yellow with a frowny unibrow—at first, but as it hovers, the more she notices it and the larger it grows. The longer Ruby is affected by this Worry, the fewer colors appear on the page. Though she tries not to pay attention to the Worry, which no one else can see, ignoring it prevents her from enjoying the things that she once loved. Her constant anxiety about the Worry causes the bright yellow blob to crowd Ruby’s everyday life, which by this point is nearly all washes of gray and white. But at the playground, Ruby sees a boy sitting on a bench with a growing sky-blue Worry of his own. When she invites the boy to talk, his Worry begins to shrink—and when Ruby talks about her own Worry, it also grows smaller. By the book’s conclusion, Ruby learns to control her Worry by talking about what worries her, a priceless lesson for any child—or adult—conveyed in a beautifully child-friendly manner. Ruby presents black, with hair in cornrows and two big afro-puff pigtails, while the boy has pale skin and spiky black hair.
A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their feelings (. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0237-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
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