A soothing tale that gently encourages mindfulness, elevated by its warm artwork.
Kleinert’s picture book traces a child’s attempt to connect with the moon.
A young boy with light skin and blond hair, walking at night with his family, says hello to the moon after his mother does; that night, he starts the ritual of saying good night to the moon each evening, despite hearing no reply. Unbeknownst to him, the moon does answer in subtle, natural ways—by casting light into his room, shifting the ocean’s tides, and carrying scents and sounds through the night air. At first, these responses go unnoticed, reinforcing the idea that communication doesn’t always happen in expected forms. As the boy grows, he begins to pay closer attention to his surroundings, eventually recognizing the moon’s presence in these quiet, sensory details (“he felt connected to something very big”). The story follows him into adulthood, when he shares this understanding with his own daughter, encouraging her to slow down and listen more carefully to the natural world. The narrative leans heavily on repetition, which may feel predictable to some readers but effectively reinforces its theme for a young audience. Horowitz’s soft watercolor illustrations add warmth and cohesion; the recurring image of a cat lounging in each spread offers an engaging visual thread that will reward observant readers.
A soothing tale that gently encourages mindfulness, elevated by its warm artwork.Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2025
ISBN: 9798993409221
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Curious Hearts Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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