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BUT ART IS AWFUL!

Name: BUT ART IS AWFUL!
Author: Cassi McCreight
ISBN: 9781419779473

by Cassi McCreight ; illustrated by Xindi Yan ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 19, 2026

A dream pick for art educators and potentially attitude-changing for youngsters dreading a museum trip.

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A begrudging museum visitor experiences a shift in perspective.

After a child spends the morning drawing on the walls and finger painting the cat, Mom decides it’s a good idea to get out of the house. The dreaded destination? “Oh, please, please, please don’t make me go to a place as boring as an ART MUSEUM!” the child laments. Mom is undeterred, and as the pair peruse the museum, pausing to admire sculptures and paintings, the youngster’s skepticism slowly gives way to genuine curiosity. The protagonist’s attitude of affected disinterest (“Art is cool or interesting or whatever”) is belied by an obvious newfound enthusiasm. The child’s first-person narration omits quotation marks for an immersive, amusing stream-of-consciousness, and rhetorical observations—“What is this? Is it art?” “What does that even mean?”—might strike a familiar chord among many museum-goers, young and old. Yan’s soft-edged illustrations on white pages include nods to notable artists like René Magritte, Joan Miro, and Piet Mondrian, with several major art movements explained in the backmatter as “Stuff I Accidentally Learned at the Museum.” Parent and child have light-brown skin; other characters are diverse in skin tone.

A dream pick for art educators and potentially attitude-changing for youngsters dreading a museum trip. (author’s and illustrator’s notes, bibliography, resources) (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: May 19, 2026

ISBN: 9781419779473

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Abrams

Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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THE PUMPKIN THIEF

From the Leaf Thief series

by Alice Hemming ; illustrated by Nicola Slater ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 28, 2026

More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.

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Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.

Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.

More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: July 28, 2026

ISBN: 9781464268076

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SUN THIEF
by Alice Hemming ; illustrated by Nicola Slater

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THE SNOW THIEF
by Alice Hemming ; illustrated by Nicola Slater

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THE BISON AND THE BUTTERFLY
by Alice Hemming ; illustrated by Nancy Leschnikoff

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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)