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PIANO WANTS TO PLAY

Name: PIANO WANTS TO PLAY
Author: Colleen Kong-Savage
ISBN: 9781645677932

by Colleen Kong-Savage ; illustrated by Colleen Kong-Savage ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024

A tender invitation to rediscover old friendships and create new melodies.

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS

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THE TURTLE SHIP
by Helena Ku Rhee ; illustrated by Colleen Kong-Savage

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GOOD NIGHT THOUGHTS

by Max Greenfield ; illustrated by James Serafino ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2024

Relatable guidance for nocturnal worriers.

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Actor and author Greenfield’s latest picture book follows a child kept awake by anxieties.

The pajama-clad narrator huddles in bed among the blue shadows of a bedroom at night. “Every time I close my eyes, I’m afraid of all the scary stuff I see.” Bright, candy-hued clouds of cartoon images surround the child, lively, disruptive depictions of the what-ifs and exaggerated disasters that crowd out sleep: war (we see the world pop “into a piece of popcorn”), kidnapping (pirates carry away the child’s teddy bear), falling “up” into the sun, tarantulas in the toilet, and a menacing-looking dentist. These outsize insomnia inducers may help readers put their own unvoiced concerns into perspective; after all, what frightens one person might seem silly but understandable to another. Our narrator tries to replace the unsettling thoughts with happy ones—hugging a baby panda, being serenaded by a choir of doughnuts, and “all the people who love me holding hands and wearing every piece of clothing that they own.” But sleep is still elusive. Finally, remembering that there’s a difference between reality and an overactive imagination, the child relaxes a bit: “Right now, everything is okay. And so am I.” Reassuring, though not exactly sedate, this tale will spark daytime discussions about how difficult it can be to quiet unsettling thoughts. The child has dark hair and blue-tinged skin, reflecting the darkness of the bedroom.

Relatable guidance for nocturnal worriers. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024

ISBN: 9780593697894

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: May 31, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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I DON'T WANT TO READ THIS BOOK ALOUD
by Max Greenfield ; illustrated by Mike Lowery

- BOOK REVIEW
THIS BOOK IS NOT A PRESENT
by Max Greenfield ; illustrated by Mike Lowery

- BOOK REVIEW
I DON'T WANT TO READ THIS BOOK
by Max Greenfield ; illustrated by Mike Lowery

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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)