Visually charming and a bit disarming, this invites dialogue between caregivers and young children.
Under a half moon, a glimpse of a half woman in a cottage full of half things invites speculation and puzzlement.
In cadences reminiscent of Margaret Wise Brown’s soothing narratives, Ellis introduces the interior: “Half a window / Half a door / Half a rug on half a floor.” True and near rhymes jostle gently in the lulling text. When “half a knock on half a door” reveals “half a face you’ve seen before,” the half woman—who presents White with freckles and long, carrot-colored hair—is reunited with her other half. After a satisfying “SHOOOOOP” joins the halves together, she revels outside under the moon. Next, the nether end of the pet cat is at the door, sparking two “half cats / in a half-cat fight.” In Ellis’ appealing gouache paintings, the cat halves spar in a series of spot illustrations. A page turn reveals a partial resolution: “Two half cats asleep / Good night.” Young readers might wonder why the cat’s halves don’t “shoop” together at the end, as the woman’s halves had. Perhaps it’s a nod to the consummate self-satisfaction of felines: Ellis’ dedication calls out both her son and her eight cats, past and present. Even as she evokes the coziness of Goodnight Moon, Ellis injects a modern, disquieting note by avoiding “shooping” all things whole.
Visually charming and a bit disarming, this invites dialogue between caregivers and young children. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1456-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
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
It doesn’t take a fortune teller to predict the laughter that will emanate from this world of tomorrow.
The future is now…and it’s exceedingly silly.
“This book is from the future.” What are things like there? Barnett enlightens readers: “The sun is called the moon and the moon is called the sun.” Readers learn that apples no longer exist (Barnett doesn’t explain why), that lots of people are named “Charlie Cheese Face” (“There’s an interesting reason why, but we don’t have time for that story”), and that instead of “goodbye,” people now say, “You smell like a baby!” The work closes with a ridiculous conversation between two characters who somehow manage to work in most of the new terms. This tale’s raison d’être seems to be coming up with the goofiest alternatives to normal day-to-day terms and interactions. Barnett gets seriously silly as he thinks up gags ideal for reading aloud at storytime. As for Harris’ art, aside from the occasional cool pair of sunglasses or hair dye, the future feels pretty early-21st-century; his colorful ink and gouache illustrations are rife with visual gags. Futuristic terms look as if they were printed on a label maker. Human characters vary in skin tone.
It doesn’t take a fortune teller to predict the laughter that will emanate from this world of tomorrow. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9798217033171
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Nov. 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
