bookshelf

THE SASQUATCH AND THE LUMBERJACK

Name: THE SASQUATCH AND THE LUMBERJACK
Author: Crix Sheridan
ISBN: 978-1-63217-161-0

by Crix Sheridan ; illustrated by Crix Sheridan ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 22, 2018

Emergent readers will quickly learn the text and tell their own tales of the duo’s adventures.

bookshelf

Strangers in the woods become friends.

A sasquatch who’s wearing red high-tops and carrying a camera meets a gray-bearded, flannel-wearing lumberjack: “STRANGERS.” That doesn’t last long. In the “autumn” they “forage” for mushrooms and “pick” apples. In the “winter” they skate and go ice fishing, “climb” a mountain, and “slide” down the other side. In the “spring” they “hike” and “roast” marshmallows, and they ride a tandem “bike.” And in the “summer” they “swim” and “float” lazily on a lake…and by the end, they are, of course, best “friends.” This quietly adventurous tale of a growing friendship between two unlikely buddies begins on the front endpapers with the characters in photos by themselves. Over the course of 15 full-bleed, double-page spreads, each with only one word, set in all capital letters, the two build their friendship in the forest. Two tiny friends, a bumblebee and a mouse, go along for the ride. And the closing endpapers are graced with selfies of the duo having fun together. Graphic novelist Sheridan’s simple tale of friendship is also a love note to the great outdoors. The colorfully muted illustrations are varied in perspective and full of humor (a surfing sasquatch in a wetsuit with an octopus on its back?!). The lumberjack is white; the sasquatch’s fur is rust-colored.

Emergent readers will quickly learn the text and tell their own tales of the duo’s adventures. (Picture book. 2-7)

Pub Date: May 22, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-63217-161-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch

Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SASQUATCH AND THE LUMBERJACK FAMILY
by Crix Sheridan ; illustrated by Crix Sheridan

bookshelf

CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

bookshelf

A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

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

bookshelf

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...

bookshelf

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)