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THE BIG BEACH CLEANUP

Simple enough for preschool and kindergarten listeners but an effective introduction to a worldwide problem.

Disappointed when the end-of-summer sand-castle competition is postponed due to beach conditions, Cora starts campaigns to clean the beach and to avoid creating more plastic trash.

The storyline of this thinly disguised lesson is straightforward. The aspiring castle-contest–contestant tries to clean up the beach, finds the task overwhelming, discovers that people are often too busy to pick up the accumulated trash but can help in other ways, learns about animals thinking trash is food, enlists some friends, and, with other contestants on the trash-free beach, gets to build her castle after all. What distinguishes the presentation are Rewse’s colorful illustrations. They suggest a seaside community with a diverse population, palm trees, plenty of sun and sand, and, unfortunately (and all too realistically), a beach strewn with familiar plastic trash. Cora and her mother have brown skin and long textured hair, and there’s a pleasing variety of skin tones, hair colors and styles, and generations among the simply depicted characters. The beach-cleaners all wear gloves or use trash-picking poles. The final spread shows the sand-castle competition, and though Cora’s construction looks like a grand place to live, readers can see that others are even more complex or imaginative. But that’s not the end. Cora’s new project is a trash-reducing campaign. An author’s note provides more information about plastic trash and ways to avoid creating it.

Simple enough for preschool and kindergarten listeners but an effective introduction to a worldwide problem. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: March 1, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-8075-0801-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Whitman

Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021

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WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A PROBLEM?

A straightforward, effective approach to helping children cope with one of life’s commonplace yet emotionally fraught...

A child struggles with the worry and anxiety that come with an unexpected problem.

In a wonderful balance of text and pictures, the team responsible for What Do You Do With an Idea (2014) returns with another book inspiring children to feel good about themselves. A child frets about a problem that won’t go away: “I wished it would just disappear. I tried everything I could to hide from it. I even found ways to disguise myself. But it still found me.” The spare, direct narrative is accompanied by soft gray illustrations in pencil and watercolor. The sepia-toned figure of the child is set apart from the background and surrounded by lots of white space, visually isolating the problem, which is depicted as a purple storm cloud looming overhead. Color is added bit by bit as the storm cloud grows and its color becomes more saturated. With a backpack and umbrella, the child tries to escape the problem while the storm swirls, awash with compass points scattered across the pages. The pages brighten into splashes of yellow as the child decides to tackle the problem head-on and finds that it holds promise for unlooked-for opportunity.

A straightforward, effective approach to helping children cope with one of life’s commonplace yet emotionally fraught situations, this belongs on the shelf alongside Molly Bang’s Sophie books. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 1, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-943-20000-9

Page Count: 44

Publisher: Compendium

Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016

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BROKEN CRAYONS STILL COLOR

Religious-themed affirmation to help steel little ones fretting about school.

Collier, founder of the international women’s ministry Broken Crayons Still Color, and co-author Bak help kids tackle first-day-of-school jitters.

There’s nothing like a new box of crayons, especially when the first day of school is right around the corner. Avery tries to enjoy coloring, but she feels “flippy, fizzy, and fluttery inside.” When Avery doesn’t want to eat dinner, her father realizes she’s nervous and encourages her to pray. Avery replies that she’s too scared; her father tells her, “You can do hard things.” Later, Avery draws with her crayons, but her depictions of her first day reflect her anxieties—attempting to draw the school playground, she scrawls an image of her being hit by a ball while another child laughs. Suddenly, Avery’s crayons break. Realizing she’s made a mess, she begins to sob: “I’m a mess, just like these crayons.” But one of the crayons Avery broke begins talking to her, telling her not to put herself down. The very polite crayons reassure Avery, telling her it’s OK to feel bad, offering her strategies for calming herself, and telling her that “no mess is ever too big for God.” Vasilica’s sprightly illustration are charming and inviting, while the message is a soothing one—though one more likely to appeal to religious, especially Christian, readers. Avery and her family present Black. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Religious-themed affirmation to help steel little ones fretting about school. (feelings color wheel) (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2023

ISBN: 9781400242900

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Tommy Nelson

Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023

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