SORREL AND THE SLEEPOVER

Name: SORREL AND THE SLEEPOVER
Author: Corrinne Averiss
ISBN: 978-1-4380-5056-0

by Corrinne Averiss ; illustrated by Susan Varley ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2018

The affirming message offers an important lesson about the joys of heterogeneity, so young listeners will likely enjoy...

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A little girl squirrel tries to hide the ways that she and her best friend are different.

Sorrel and Sage are simpatico school friends who love being alike. The trouble starts when Sage invites Sorrel to a sleepover. Sage’s home tree, a lush evergreen, is larger and houses lots more relatives than Sorrel’s. Ashamed and worried, Sorrel makes a series of creative excuses to avoid inviting Sage to her house. When their play takes them near Sorrel’s tree one day, however, Sage finds the old “broken and bumpy” cherry tree where Sorrel lives with her mother completely charming. Delightful ink-and-watercolor paintings create a cozy, decidedly British, and mostly old-fashioned world. The rabbit schoolteacher rings a hand bell, female characters are shown in skirts, and Sorrel and Sage carry satchels, but one picture shows a smartphone plugged in to charge. The airy, pastoral feel and engaging anthropomorphic characters keep the tone light and prevent the purposive plot from feeling preachy. The relatively lengthy text doesn’t quite measure up to the quality of the artwork; occasional rhymes seem out of place, and a lot of alliteration can make it somewhat awkward to read aloud.

The affirming message offers an important lesson about the joys of heterogeneity, so young listeners will likely enjoy making the acquaintance of Sorrel and Sage and pondering with them what makes a perfect friendship. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-4380-5056-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Barron's

Review Posted Online: June 10, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
JOY
by Corrinne Averiss ; illustrated by Isabelle Follath

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A DOT IN THE SNOW
by Corrinne Averiss ; illustrated by Fiona Woodcock

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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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RUBY FINDS A WORRY

From the Big Bright Feelings series

by Tom Percival ; illustrated by Tom Percival ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019

A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their...

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Ruby is an adventurous and happy child until the day she discovers a Worry.

Ruby barely sees the Worry—depicted as a blob of yellow with a frowny unibrow—at first, but as it hovers, the more she notices it and the larger it grows. The longer Ruby is affected by this Worry, the fewer colors appear on the page. Though she tries not to pay attention to the Worry, which no one else can see, ignoring it prevents her from enjoying the things that she once loved. Her constant anxiety about the Worry causes the bright yellow blob to crowd Ruby’s everyday life, which by this point is nearly all washes of gray and white. But at the playground, Ruby sees a boy sitting on a bench with a growing sky-blue Worry of his own. When she invites the boy to talk, his Worry begins to shrink—and when Ruby talks about her own Worry, it also grows smaller. By the book’s conclusion, Ruby learns to control her Worry by talking about what worries her, a priceless lesson for any child—or adult—conveyed in a beautifully child-friendly manner. Ruby presents black, with hair in cornrows and two big afro-puff pigtails, while the boy has pale skin and spiky black hair.

A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their feelings (. (Picture book. 4-6)