A joyful celebration of friendship, the stars, and finding one’s self in this world and beyond.
A lonely ghost and shadow look to the stars to find a true connection.
Nocturnal Shinbi, a smudgy white ghost with pink circles for cheeks, is tired of haunting houses and wants to explore the natural world. She settles by a nearby rock. After spotting a shooting star, she makes “a wish for a friend” and leaves a note on the rock, then disappears. Greem, a lonely, pink-cheeked dark shadow cast by Shinbi’s rock, emerges the next morning, wishing for “someone to talk to.” Spotting Shinbi’s message, he leaves her a note on a leaf, which she finds that night. A pen pal–like relationship emerges as they draw pictures of themselves and, in a shared creative activity, use pebbles to come up with their own constellations (identified in the text alongside actual star systems, rendered in a different font). When Greem throws a pebble into the sky and makes a wish of his own, a series of shooting stars appear, and the two finally meet, in a burst of golden-speckled sparks that merges into a collective palette of both light and dark. Min’s watercolor, colored pencil, and digital illustrations capture not only the night sky but also the exuberant emotions of the protagonists. The passage of time is conveyed through successive panels in double-page spreads that highlight the wondrous blue, pink, and purple hues of the sky.
A joyful celebration of friendship, the stars, and finding one’s self in this world and beyond. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781646143689
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Levine Querido
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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