An encouraging take on moving and making new friends.
A girl who uses a wheelchair faces challenges at her new school.
Eight-year-old Obioma loves playing football—soccer, to readers in the United States. Using her arms as legs, she scores goals with a “special stick” and propels her wheelchair as fast as a cheetah; she jokes that her best friend Mmeri is a tortoise next to her. Obioma also loves the oranges that grow near her school. Alas, she’s forbidden to “set foot” on the farm—but surely rolling in with Mmeri on her lap to grab the fruit doesn’t count. After being caught orange-handed, Obioma’s sure she’s in trouble when she comes home and overhears her parents discussing something serious. But their news is even worse: Obioma and her family are moving to another city for Mummy’s job. At her new school—which has no ramp, requiring Daddy to carry her inside—kids stare at her and jeer that girls and wheelchair users can’t play football. Obioma grows sadder and sadder…until another child asks her to play. Unigwe warmly introduces readers to an energetic, appealingly mischievous girl whose disability is just one part of her. Cleverly reinforcing this multifaceted portrayal, Okoroafor’s cartoon illustrations depict Obioma’s wheelchair as a simple white outline, visible but muted amid lush yellow, green, and blue background hues. All characters are Black, with varying shades of brown skin, and the setting appears to be African, possibly Nigerian. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An encouraging take on moving and making new friends. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781913175375
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Cassava Republic Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
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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