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AMERICA'S DREAMING

Name: AMERICA'S DREAMING
Author: Bob McKinnon
ISBN: 9780593658796

by Bob McKinnon ; illustrated by Thai My Phuong ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 4, 2024

An earnest but less-than-convincing attempt at fostering inclusion.

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A child named America feels out of place at a new school.

America is clearly nervous. Though the child isn’t visually depicted (each scene is viewed from the young narrator’s perspective), America confesses, “My hands are shaking so bad, I drop my backpack.” As class begins, the teacher, Mr. Downs, invites the students to introduce themselves and share their dreams, which include scoring the winning World Cup goal and singing on Broadway. But when it’s America’s turn, the child freezes up, and the other students giggle and sneer. During recess, America stays inside, buried in a biography of Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Downs offers America books about historical figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Sojourner Truth, people who sometimes felt they didn’t belong. That night, these larger-than-life people visit America in a dream and share words of wisdom. The next day goes better: America speaks up, and the other students welcome America into the fold. McKinnon tells a heartfelt yet didactic story, accompanied by Phuong’s earth-toned illustrations. The legendary figures America meets are reduced to flattened, simplistic depictions. McKinnon offers a one-sided view of friendship and acceptance; while America does plenty of soul-searching, the other students don’t reflect on their unkindness—which may inadvertently leave readers believing that the onus is on bullied children to work harder to fit in. The other kids’ ultimate willingness to embrace America also seems unrealistically rushed. The class is diverse; Mr. Downs is light-skinned.

An earnest but less-than-convincing attempt at fostering inclusion. (author’s note, information on historical figures) (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: June 4, 2024

ISBN: 9780593658796

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Penguin Workshop

Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
AMERICA GIVES THANKS
by Bob McKinnon ; illustrated by Thai My Phuong

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SPAGHETTI HEAD & CHICKEN FINGERS

by Rhett McLaughlin & Link Neal ; illustrated by Erica Salcedo ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2026

Wild and wacky.

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A picture book from the comedy duo known as Rhett & Link, creators of the online juggernaut Good Mythical Morning.

Lumo is obsessed with chicken fingers; Saffy, who is new to town and anxious about starting school, finds comfort in the only food she likes: buttered spaghetti. The night before the first day of school, a thunderstorm rages, and each kid makes a wish—“to have chicken fingers at school,” in Lumo’s case; Saffy wishes for “the first thing off the top of her head: buttered spaghetti.” File under “Be careful what you wish for.” Lumo’s and Saffy’s respective physical changes (chicken fingers for fingers, spaghetti for hair) make navigating school a challenge but bring them together in the cafeteria, where they enjoy some new foods—and their new friendship. The plotting could have been sharper: Why do the kids’ bodies suddenly return to normal? And couldn’t the authors have thought up a less old-hat story-ending punch line? Nevertheless, McLaughlin and Neal get by on their charm, and the plot sets up some funny visuals. Salcedo’s cartoony Photoshop art features well-chosen artifacts from a typical kid’s life and captures the mortification of not fitting in, which will be familiar even to readers who have never experienced breaded fingers or noodle hair. Lumo is brown-skinned and dark-haired; Saffy is pale-skinned with disheveled reddish-brown hair.

Wild and wacky. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: June 16, 2026

ISBN: 9780063474154

Page Count: 32

Publisher: HarperPop/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

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...

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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)