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ODE TO A BAD DAY

Name: ODE TO A BAD DAY
Author: Chelsea Lin Wallace
ISBN: 978-1-79721-080-3

by Chelsea Lin Wallace ; illustrated by Hyewon Yum ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2023

This is one bad day readers won’t mind reliving again and again.

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It’s only fitting that a day this bad gets its own lyrical poem.

“Oh you Bad Morning.” Right from the start, a child who presents as Asian with straight black hair, peachy skin, and dots for eyes can tell it’s going to be a bad day. On most double-page spreads, rhyming lines in irregular meter convey the sensibility and grandeur of the traditional ode, glorifying a different aspect of the bad day. The verso describes the outrage (“Oh Too Much Milk in My Cereal, / soggy, squishy! Boggy, mushy! / You turned my crispy into gushy!”), while the recto declaims the lament (“Oh you Too Much Milk”). It is impressive how many despairing, outraged, and sad expressions Yum is able to give the young protagonist as the day progresses through each indignity, including itchy clothes, being late, dealing with a line cutter, and getting the hiccups. One particularly poignant illustration sees the child prone on the floor of a supermarket with one knee raised: “Oh you Boredom.” Not every rhyme is perfect, but the overall sentiment comes through loud and clear, and Yum’s soft watercolor and colored pencil artwork is a wonderful foil for the negative feelings. This is especially true as the day draws to a close, a new day is within sight, and more hopeful thoughts take over. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

This is one bad day readers won’t mind reliving again and again. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: April 18, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-79721-080-3

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BOO-BOOS OF BLUEBELL ELEMENTARY
by Chelsea Lin Wallace ; illustrated by Alison Farrell

- BOOK REVIEW
A HOME NAMED WALTER
by Chelsea Lin Wallace ; illustrated by Ginnie Hsu

- BOOK REVIEW
YOU ARE ALWAYS LOVED
by Madeleine Dean & Harry Cunnane with Chelsea Lin Wallace ; illustrated by Holly Clifton-Brown

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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)

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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THE BIG CHEESE

From the Food Group series

by Jory John ; illustrated by Pete Oswald ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 2023

From curds to riches, from meltdown to uplift—this multicourse romp delivers.

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A winning wheel of cheddar with braggadocio to match narrates a tale of comeuppance and redemption.

From humble beginnings among kitchen curds living “quiet lives of pasteurization,” the Big Cheese longs to be the best and builds success and renown based on proven skills and dependable results: “I stuck to the things I was good at.” When newcomer Wedge moves to the village of Curds-on-Whey, the Cheese’s star status wobbles and falls. Turns out that quiet, modest Wedge is also multitalented. At the annual Cheese-cathlon, Wedge bests six-time winner Cheese in every event, from the footrace and chess to hat making and bread buttering. A disappointed Cheese throws a full-blown tantrum before arriving at a moment of truth: Self-calming, conscious breathing permits deep relief that losing—even badly—does not result in disaster. A debrief with Wedge “that wasn’t all about me” leads to further realizations: Losing builds empathy for others; obsession with winning obscures “the joy of participating.” The chastened cheddar learns to reserve bragging for lifting up friends, because anyone can be the Big Cheese. More didactic and less pun-rich than previous entries in the Food Group series, this outing nevertheless couples a cheerful refrain with pithy life lessons that hit home. Oswald’s detailed, comical illustrations continue to provide laughs, including a spot with Cheese onstage doing a “CHED” talk.

From curds to riches, from meltdown to uplift—this multicourse romp delivers. (Picture book. 4-8)