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THE BRILLIANT MS. BANGLE

Name: THE BRILLIANT MS. BANGLE
Author: Cara Devins
ISBN: 9781250247704

by Cara Devins ; illustrated by K-Fai Steele ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 20, 2023

A charming portrayal of a whimsical trickster librarian who knows how to get kids reading.

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Change can be challenging but good.

Summer’s over, and the Belford Elementary students are thrilled to return to school. But when they learn that Ms. Stack, their librarian, has moved away, they hatch a plan to refuse to read with the new librarian, Ms. Bangle, until Ms. Stack returns. A brown-skinned, large, vivacious woman, Ms. Bangle wears a huge puffball on the top of her head and clothing with lots of colors and patterns. Instead of resisting the students’ rejection of her, she thanks them for giving her the day off and puts them to work on (boring) library chores, including taking empty boxes to the basement, where they’re all afraid to go. Steele’s thick-lined illustrations, featuring racially diverse characters with large, bulging eyes, capture the kids’ excitement about being back in school and their solidarity in their plan to get Ms. Stack to come back. The illustrations also convey Ms. Bangle’s liveliness: She enters the library with a stack of notebooks on her shoulder and moves so fast that colored papers fly out behind her. The colorful posters on the walls, stuffed animals atop the shelves, and the sewing machine on which Ms. Bangle hems her pants while the kids suffer through chores hint at the delights the students are missing. But this Black librarian is both fun-loving and clever, which leads to a satisfying ending. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A charming portrayal of a whimsical trickster librarian who knows how to get kids reading. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 20, 2023

ISBN: 9781250247704

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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LITTLE BLUE TRUCK AND RACER RED

From the Little Blue Truck series

by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 25, 2025

A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.

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In this latest in the series, Little Blue Truck, driven by pal Toad, is challenged to a countryside race by Racer Red, a sleek, low-slung vehicle.

Blue agrees, and the race is on. Although the two start off “hood to hood / and wheel to wheel,” they switch positions often as they speed their way over dusty country roads. Blue’s farm friends follow along to share in the excitement and shout out encouragement; adult readers will have fun voicing the various animal sounds. Short rhyming verses on each page and several strategic page turns add drama to the narrative, but soft, mottled effects in the otherwise colorful illustrations keep the competition from becoming too intense. Racer Red crosses the finish line first, but Blue is a gracious loser, happy to have worked hard. That’s a new concept for Racer Red, who’s laser-focused on victory but takes Blue’s words (“win or lose, it’s fun to try!”) to heart—a revelation that may lead to worthwhile storytime discussions. When Blue’s farm animal friends hop into the truck for the ride home, Racer Red tags along and learns a second lesson, one about speed. “Fast is fun, / and slow is too, / as long as you’re / with friends.”

A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 25, 2025

ISBN: 9780063387843

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK MAKES A FRIEND
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry

- BOOK REVIEW
TIME FOR SCHOOL, LITTLE BLUE TRUCK
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK'S VALENTINE
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph

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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)