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DEEP BREATHS

Name: DEEP BREATHS
Author: Carol Thompson
ISBN: 978-1-9848-9397-0

by Carol Thompson ; illustrated by Carol Thompson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2019

Though originally published in Australia nearly 10 years ago, it’s a fresh, relevant exploration of social-emotional...

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Dolly and Jack are a pig and a rabbit whose lives are immensely enriched by their friendship.

Dolly and Jack love playing together. They bolster each other with continual giggles and compliments. When a day comes that they have an emotionally charged misunderstanding, it is devastating to them both. They go their separate ways and are shown individually processing their feelings of anger and hurt. They each use their own self-care strategies to return to a place of calm; Dolly takes deep breaths and a warm bath while Jack counts slowly and visualizes something that makes him happy. These individual practices allow each character to return to the friendship and start anew. The story is immensely in tune with young readers and does a wonderful job depicting the full process of self-regulation: Big feelings are identified and named, and known calming strategies are selected and implemented. The childlike illustrations are delightfully messy, with bold lines and colorful shading. Upon return to the friendship, the two friends are shown expressing their care through appropriate, gentle touch. The yoga poses thrown in at the end are more of a distraction than a meaningful addition, but it’s a minor flaw.

Though originally published in Australia nearly 10 years ago, it’s a fresh, relevant exploration of social-emotional regulation. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-9848-9397-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Rodale Kids

Review Posted Online: July 6, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
MUSIC
by Carol Thompson ; illustrated by Carol Thompson

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SOL
by Carol Thompson ; illustrated by Carol Thompson ; translated by Teresa Mlawer

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MY DADDY IS A SILLY MONKEY
by Dianne Hofmeyr ; illustrated by Carol Thompson

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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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)