Moral: It’s never too early to learn to stand up for yourself or others in the face of injustice.
A simple modification of famous lyrics to spread an anti-bullying message that is as necessary today as on the day the song that inspired it was released.
In her third picture book offering that uses one of her father’s songs as inspiration, Cedella Marley (Every Little Thing, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton, 2012, etc.) touches on the topics of bullying and ostracism and on the courage it takes to combat them. She delivers a statement about social justice and bravery in an appropriately simple style that children can grasp. The result is a message of empowerment and unity: that standing up for yourself inspires others to do the same and may help to bring people together rather than continue a practice of exclusion and belittling. It is very much in keeping with the import of Bob Marley’s words in the song of the same name. Vibrant illustrations from Cabuay show a diverse cast of children, which will certainly help with accessibility to children from all walks of life. He depicts children getting up and standing up at the bus stop and on the bus, on city streets, and in parks. The final joyous double-page spread finds a joyous, multiracial crowd joining a neighborhood festival above which flies a flag depicting the late musician and the legend “One Love.”
Moral: It’s never too early to learn to stand up for yourself or others in the face of injustice. (afterword) (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-452-17172-2
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
Safe to creep on by.
Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.
In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.
Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
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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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