Learning to read can be hard, and this book offers youngsters tackling the skill needed sympathy.
Monster siblings Alphonse and Natalie (Alphonse, That Is Not OK to Do! 2016) return in a sympathetic story about learning to read.
Natalie is excited to go to school and to learn to read. She and her younger brother, Alphonse, love stories, both hearing them and telling them. But when the teacher hands Natalie her first primer, reading seems harder than expected, as “the letters and words looked like prickles or birds’ feet.” Despite the teacher’s encouragement to sound out the words, Natalie is frustrated by the difficulty as well as the absence of a real story in this book about a cat that sits. Practicing eventually gives her mastery of this book, but when Alphonse asks Natalie to read aloud one of his books, the letters and words look “like scuttling insects with too many legs and eyes.” Natalie declares, “I DO NOT LIKE BOOKS ANYMORE!” Instead, she decides to take care of her sick elephant, Sinéad, while making up her own more interesting story. Dad helps by writing the words to the pictures she draws with her brother, producing a homemade book she can read again and again. Bold, primary colors against white space create supportive scenes peopled by this lovable family of adorable, Muppet-like monsters eager to nurture some perseverance and full of patience with Natalie’s struggle and ultimate accomplishment. Natalie is on her way to reap the pleasures of learning to read, as seen in the endpapers, by authoring her own storybooks, a recognized strategy to foster beginning readers.
Learning to read can be hard, and this book offers youngsters tackling the skill needed sympathy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Nov. 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0334-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
A bit message-heavy and twee, but feline fans will show up.
Spinach wants to fit in with the other kittens (and secretly dreams of being a superkitty).
Because of a malformed chest, Spinach can’t play like the other kittens in the shelter. She longs for a blue card on her kennel, which means a cat is bound for Foreverland. Instead, she’s whisked away to a strange room full of humans in white coats, where she learns that she has a condition called pectus excavatum. When she awakens after an operation, she finds a plate on her chest and believes it gives her superpowers. She’s moved to Fosterland, where she meets another kitten called Chickpea, who looks up to Spinach. The duo escape their enclosure, avoid a giant human, and discover a group of kittens trapped in a strange machine. Can they rescue the kittens? And what happens when Spinach’s chest plate vanishes? The second in cat rescuer and internet personality Shaw’s series is mostly unconnected to the first. The cats use words and concepts they could not have encountered in their lives while misunderstanding others for effect and plot (Spinach knows what a lasso and ice cubes are but thinks that a cat carrier is a hovercraft). The can-do message is repeated to the point of didacticism. Experienced chapter readers may be put off. Upping the sweetness quotient, Johnson’s adorable, black-and-white full-page and spot illustrations are a plus.
A bit message-heavy and twee, but feline fans will show up. (information about the real Spinach and Chickpea) (Fiction. 5-7)Pub Date: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66590-125-3
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An honest look at motherhood in the contemporary era and a sweet tribute to the bond between mother and child.
Grammy-winning, multiplatinum singer/songwriter Rowland teams up with California teacher McKay to celebrate busy moms.
This picture book highlights a mother’s frequent longing to be with her child when life’s demands pull them apart. The story takes us through a busy Black mom’s week: She goes to work (at a construction site where she appears to be an engineer), works from home on her son’s sick day, takes him to a museum, and shares domestic duties with her Black male partner, who is a nurse. She encounters many bumps in the road that will be familiar to working parents. Each day, she gently reassures her son with a lyrical refrain: “Always with you, / Always with me, / Mommy and child / Together we’ll be.” This tender story, narrated in the voice of a mother addressing her child, pulls at the heartstrings. Liem’s digital artwork uses a warm palette and has a calming quality. The characters’ body language and heartfelt facial expressions are spot-on. This book will resonate with any mom who knows the heartache of having to say goodbye to their child or who has faced the teary-eyed frustration of a youngster experiencing separation anxiety. Young readers, on the other hand, will find solace in the reassuring narrative. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An honest look at motherhood in the contemporary era and a sweet tribute to the bond between mother and child. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-46551-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
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