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PUT YOUR RECORDS ON

Name: PUT YOUR RECORDS ON
Author: Corinne Bailey Rae
ISBN: 9780593533024

by Corinne Bailey Rae ; illustrated by Gillian Eilidh O'Mara ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 3, 2026

A feel-good hymn to fine music and intergenerational bonds.

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In this literary debut from a Grammy-winning hitmaker, a girl’s great-aunt introduces her to the magic of classic pop music.

This work from Rae, best known for a song that shares the book’s name, centers on Bea, a Black girl with Caribbean ancestry. During one of Bea’s weekly visits to her great-aunt Portia, the girl announces that she wants to do something she’s “never done before.” So Portia leads her to a room that contains objects that Bea can’t identify (“What are these?”): Portia’s record collection. Bea selects one with “a smiling man on the cover,” and the pair groove their way through the song and three others by different artists, sparking Portia’s observations about music’s salvific aspect (“Finding a song you love is like finding a new friend who shares your feelings”). Though the tone is uplifting, some readers may wish that the book had more of a plot; they may also wonder if another music medium might elicit the same emotions as records. (Another medium can, but why kill the book’s winning retro vibe by acknowledging this?) Portia never tells Bea what they’re listening to, but keen-eyed readers will spot each song’s corresponding record jacket (among them Henry Mancini’s “Baby Elephant Walk” and Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds”) floating around the room, as if carried by sound waves. While images can’t capture a song’s vibrations, O’Mara comes close with her digitally tweaked fairy light–accented paintings in lava lamp colors.

A feel-good hymn to fine music and intergenerational bonds. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: March 3, 2026

ISBN: 9780593533024

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Rocky Pond Books/Penguin

Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025

Categories:

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

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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

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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Jim Valeri

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

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FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

by Marilyn Sadler ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2024

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.

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A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.

Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)