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KNOCK KNOCK

Name: KNOCK KNOCK
Author: Daniel Beaty
ISBN: 978-0-316-20917-5

MY DAD'S DREAM FOR ME

by Daniel Beaty ; illustrated by Bryan Collier ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 17, 2013

A valiant effort that falls short of its source’s fearless honesty and passion.

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A heartfelt effort to transform Beaty’s celebrated monologue into a picture book undermines the source material’s power, despite the contributions of Collier’s stunning collage-and-watercolor artwork.

A father and son play “KNOCK KNOCK” every morning, Papa knocking on the door to awaken him and the boy jumping into his arms. Both picture book and monologue open with this recollection and then reflect on the boy’s profound loss when his beloved father is suddenly gone; but while the latter text explains that this is due to the father’s incarceration, in picture-book form, his absence is unexplained until an author’s note in the backmatter. Not only is this potentially confusing and alarming, it also robs the text of one of its most powerful elements: when the boy visits his father in prison and must “KNOCK KNOCK” on the glass between them. In the monologue, Beaty says that he had to learn to father himself and give himself the words his father didn’t give to him. In this adaptation, the boy’s mysteriously absent father writes a loving letter filled with fatherly advice, but it omits the monologue’s lines about fighting poverty and racism and not allowing a father’s choices to define the child. Absent the critical back story, this picture book feels incomplete.

A valiant effort that falls short of its source’s fearless honesty and passion. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-316-20917-5

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2013

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- PERSPECTIVES
Bibliotherapy for All

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THE HUMBLE PIE

From the Food Group series

by Jory John ; illustrated by Pete Oswald ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 4, 2025

A flavorful call to action sure to spur young introverts.

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In this latest slice in the Food Group series, Humble Pie learns to stand up to a busy friend who’s taking advantage of his pal’s hard work on the sidelines.

Jake the Cake and Humble Pie are good friends. Where Pie is content to toil in the background, Jake happily shines in the spotlight. Alert readers will notice that Pie’s always right there, too, getting A-pluses and skiing expertly just behind—while also doing the support work that keeps every school and social project humming. “Fact: Nobody notices pie when there’s cake nearby!” When the two friends pair up for a science project, things begin well. But when the overcommitted Jake makes excuse after excuse, showing up late or not at all, a panicked Pie realizes that they won’t finish in time. When Jake finally shows up on the night before the project’s due, Pie courageously confronts him. “And for once, I wasn’t going to sugarcoat it.” The friends talk it out and collaborate through the night for the project’s successful presentation in class the next day. John and Oswald’s winning recipe—plentiful puns and delightful visual jokes—has yielded another treat here. The narration does skew didactic as it wraps up: “There’s nothing wrong with having a tough conversation, asking for help, or making sure you’re being treated fairly.” But it’s all good fun, in service of some gentle lessons about social-emotional development.

A flavorful call to action sure to spur young introverts. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025

ISBN: 9780063469730

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S HEALTH & DAILY LIVING

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BIG CHEESE PRESENTS
by Jory John ; illustrated by Pete Oswald

- BOOK REVIEW
EVERYTHING'S WRONG!
by Jory John ; illustrated by Erin Kraan

- BOOK REVIEW
THE COOL BEAN MAKES A SPLASH
by Jory John ; illustrated by Pete Oswald

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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)