A tender invitation to rediscover old friendships and create new melodies.
Piano is full of songs; will anyone sit down and help Piano sing?
The first time Amy Lu meets Piano, she begins with a few experimental pokes on its keys. Piano responds, “Plink plink plink.” Their early relationship is full of stumbles as Amy and Piano figure out how to play together. As the weeks pass, however, they settle into a friendship full of “rippling melodies” and “boogie-woogies.” Their friendship starts to fade as Amy grows up. Piano still wants to play, of course, but homework, soccer, and new friends keep Amy from sitting down at the bench. Amy’s brother Rupert becomes Piano’s new playmate. Unfortunately, they are a poor match. Where Amy’s fingers skipped, Rupert’s smack the keys “like little dead fish.” After one too many tortured sessions, Rupert abandons Piano, too, and Piano falls silent. Lonely and unwanted, Piano longs for another chance to play. The evocative text and stirring story will win over readers, while the mixed-media collages dazzle throughout; they’re particularly breathtaking on the two-page spread dedicated to Piano and Amy’s joyful reunion. Amy and Rupert are cued Chinese; other characters are diverse, and complexions include realistic shades of beige and brown as well as pink and purple.
A tender invitation to rediscover old friendships and create new melodies. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781645677932
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
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