A solid support for all children who don’t fit an accepted mode of behavior.
A boy with a flair for fashion finds affirmation.
Raffi wonders why he is different from all the other boys in school; he would rather sit quietly than play rough games. When his teacher shows him how to knit, he is excited and soon starts a scarf for his father with skeins of yarn in rainbow colors. The project grows and grows and grows as Raffi ignores the laughter from the children on their school bus. He asks his very supportive parents if maybe he is “strange or weird” or “girly” or a “Tomgirl.” No, they answer; he is wonderful. The next project is a cape for a classmate playing a prince in a school play. Step by step (illustrated on a double-page spread), Raffi designs and sews it together. After some initial teasing, the other kids are enthusiastic and ask him to create clothes for them. Acceptance and support envelop the future fashion designer. Chamberlain’s pencil, ink and digital art is colorful, comic and lively. Raffi is surely fortunate to be in such a positive setting, and hopefully he can be a model for all Tomgirls. “Mum” and “metre” are the only two Briticisms in this import.
A solid support for all children who don’t fit an accepted mode of behavior. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-84780-433-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
Fun times, fond friends, and a festive farmyard setting—little ones will be charmed.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Toad and Little Blue Truck get ready for a hayride.
After the titular vehicle is loaded with hay, Toad is nowhere to be found. “Beep! Beep! Beep! Where are you, Toad?” asks Little Blue Truck. All the barnyard animals look for him. Sheep searches the meadow. Goose and Duck check the pond. Others pitch in, too, but Toad seems to have disappeared…until Hen hears snoring coming from the pile of hay in the back of Little Blue Truck. Although the text’s scansion is imperfect in places (adults may want to pre-read to ensure a smooth read-aloud), the bouncy meter and rhyming text nevertheless capture the energy of the search and the farmyard community’s concern for Toad’s safety, making this a solid storytime choice. Eye-catching illustrations with rich, fully saturated colors balance the right level of detail while still highlighting the animal that is the focus of each verse. By introducing one farm animal at a time, Schertle also helps the youngest readers begin to identify barnyard animals by name and understand their unique farm homes. Traditional animal sounds are part of the text, and listeners will add them to their vocabulary. It all ends with the promised hayride, bringing the tale to a joyous ending.
Fun times, fond friends, and a festive farmyard setting—little ones will be charmed. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2026
ISBN: 9780063436121
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
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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