A gentle read-aloud or independent read at day’s end.
A chair and a child form a bond that lasts over many years.
“The little red chair tightened its buttons, fluffed its tufts, and straightened its tiny brass wheels. Squeakity-squeak! Maybe today, thought the little red chair.” Just as Hans Christian Andersen brought to life an evergreen tree, the author does a fine job revealing the innermost thoughts of a chair. (Though, unlike Andersen’s tale, this one ends happily.) A girl named Mia persuades her mother to buy the chair, which has been languishing in an antiques shop and is in poor condition. Mia’s mother adeptly reupholsters the chair, and the child happily shines its brass wheels to perfection. A series of delightful illustrations accompany text that shows the chair’s many roles for Mia, including playing “tuffet to Mia’s Little Miss Muffet” and gradually becoming a repository for the teenage Mia’s belongings. The chair’s feelings are sometimes expressed in physical terms: its tufts fluff up with Mia’s vow of friendship and deplete when she hugs it farewell and leaves for college. More often, italicized phrases show the chair’s feelings, including exclamations such as “Squeakity-squee!” and “Squeakity-squish.” The clever latter phrase describes its moving-van trip when Mia’s parents move to a smaller home. The chair endures years of lonely attic time until the sweetly predictable, multigenerational ending. Simple but lyrical prose features the judicial use of repetition. Both Mia and her mother are light-skinned.
A gentle read-aloud or independent read at day’s end. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781534112902
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
A tale of mutual adoration that hits a sweet note.
Little Honey Bunny Funnybunny loves baseball almost as much as she loves her big brother P.J.—though it’s a close-run thing.
Readers familiar with the pranks P.J. plays on his younger sibling in older episodes of the series (most illustrated by Roger Bollen) will be amused—and perhaps a little confused—to see him in the role of perfect big brother after meeting his swaddled little sister for the first time in mama’s lap. But here, along with being a constant companion and “always happy to see her,” he cements his heroic status in her eyes by hitting a home run for his baseball team and then patiently teaching her how to play T-ball. After carefully coaching her and leading her through warm-up exercises, he even sits in the stands, loudly cheering her on as she scores the winning run in her own very first game. “‘You are the best brother a bunny could ever have!’” she burbles. This tale’s a tad blander compared with others centered on P.J. and his sister, but it’s undeniably cheery, with text well structured for burgeoning readers. The all-smiles animal cast in Bowers’ cartoon art features a large and diversely hued family of bunnies sporting immense floppy ears as well as a multispecies crowd of furry onlookers equally varied of color, with one spectator in a wheelchair.
A tale of mutual adoration that hits a sweet note. (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9798217032464
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Though Jim may have been grumpy because a chimp’s an ape and not a monkey, readers will enjoy and maybe learn from his...
It’s a wonderful day in the jungle, so why’s Jim Panzee so grumpy?
When Jim woke up, nothing was right: "The sun was too bright, the sky was too blue, and bananas were too sweet." Norman the gorilla asks Jim why he’s so grumpy, and Jim insists he’s not. They meet Marabou, to whom Norman confides that Jim’s grumpy. When Jim denies it again, Marabou points out that Jim’s shoulders are hunched; Jim stands up. When they meet Lemur, Lemur points out Jim’s bunchy eyebrows; Jim unbunches them. When he trips over Snake, Snake points out Jim’s frown…so Jim puts on a grimacelike smile. Everyone has suggestions to brighten his mood: dancing, singing, swinging, swimming…but Jim doesn’t feel like any of that. He gets so fed up, he yells at his animal friends and stomps off…then he feels sad about yelling. He and Norman (who regrets dancing with that porcupine) finally just have a sit and decide it’s a wonderful day to be grumpy—which, of course, makes them both feel a little better. Suzanne Lang’s encouragement to sit with your emotions (thus allowing them to pass) is nearly Buddhist in its take, and it will be great bibliotherapy for the crabby, cranky, and cross. Oscar-nominated animator Max Lang’s cartoony illustrations lighten the mood without making light of Jim’s mood; Jim has comically long arms, and his facial expressions are quite funny.
Though Jim may have been grumpy because a chimp’s an ape and not a monkey, readers will enjoy and maybe learn from his journey. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-553-53786-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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