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ABCS OF WHAT I CAN BE

Name: ABCS OF WHAT I CAN BE
Author: Caitlin McDonagh
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3782-5

by Caitlin McDonagh illustrated by Caitlin McDonagh ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 24, 2018

Readers will love choosing their favorite, strangest, or funniest or coming up with their own quirky ideas.

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Diverse children act out 100 different careers, organized alphabetically from “astronaut” to “Zumba instructor.”

The layout effectively uses panels to expand the sense of possibility, with, usually, four career alternatives presented per letter/page. L stands for “lawyer,” “landscaper,” “lifeguard,” and, of course, “librarian,” for instance. Just four letters—H, J, Q, and Z—are allotted only three choices each. The illustrations employee a flat, naïve perspective and include comic touches. In the P group, a “police officer” (a woman of color) is depicted eating a doughnut. To illustrate “yarn maker,” a child with beige skin is wrapped up in yarn like a big spool. As two “groomers” (both children of color) trim a poodle, a cat seems ready to stick the plug for the electric clippers into an inhabited hamster ball. Most of the selections are logical, but a few stretch credulity, at least as careers, such as “yo-yo competitor” and “yodeler.” There are four choices for X, but with no legend or explanation, it’s up to adult caregivers to help kids understand “xerophytic gardener” and “exobiologist” (they’ll probably pick up on “xylophone player” and “X-ray technician” without much difficulty). Overall, the illustrations provide the fun while the selection of jobs makes the book useful, and the vigorous eye to diversity is a real plus.

Readers will love choosing their favorite, strangest, or funniest or coming up with their own quirky ideas. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-8234-3782-5

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Holiday House

Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

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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)

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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A BIKE LIKE SERGIO'S

by Maribeth Boelts ; illustrated by Noah Z. Jones ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 4, 2016

Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...

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Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.

This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.

Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)