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WHEN THE DARK CLOUDS COME

Name: WHEN THE DARK CLOUDS COME
Author: Danielle Ridolfi
ISBN: 9780063413344

by Danielle Ridolfi ; illustrated by Danielle Ridolfi ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 2025

A visually striking but ultimately discomfiting tale.

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A child endures a stormy night.

Illustrator and picture-book scholar Ridolfi’s debut opens outdoors “on a hot summer day when the sun goes dim” as a long-haired, tan-skinned child watches as clouds roll in, grasses sway, and leaves rustle. When raindrops fall, the little one, protected under an oversize purple plaid umbrella and wearing polka-dot boots, walks alongside other umbrella holders as “sidewalks disappear into dark wet shadows.” Before lightning flashes and thunder rolls, the adventurer returns home safely and snuggles into bed. The next morning’s “warm new day” reminds readers that “when the dark clouds come, the sun is never far behind.” Ridolfi has digitally composed striking illustrations in mixed-media collages of diverse patterns and various textures. Darkness haunts most of the pages—balanced with brighter patches of flowers, hanging laundry, and a quilted comforter—until the final two spreads are awash in sunlight. With a background as a clinical psychologist, Ridolfi highlights the child’s independent self-reliance, but that solitariness feels more lonely than empowering, abandoning the youngster to a scurrying mouse, a curious cat, and whispering shadows. The choice not to include ready comforts—a glowing night light, a gentle hand—as well as layouts that depict the child and the home as tiny and vulnerable, will leave many young readers feeling more unsettled than soothed.

A visually striking but ultimately discomfiting tale. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025

ISBN: 9780063413344

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
WE CAN HEAR WITHOUT EARS
by Lisa Westberg Peters ; illustrated by Danielle Ridolfi

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SPAGHETTI HEAD & CHICKEN FINGERS

by Rhett McLaughlin & Link Neal ; illustrated by Erica Salcedo ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2026

Wild and wacky.

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A picture book from the comedy duo known as Rhett & Link, creators of the online juggernaut Good Mythical Morning.

Lumo is obsessed with chicken fingers; Saffy, who is new to town and anxious about starting school, finds comfort in the only food she likes: buttered spaghetti. The night before the first day of school, a thunderstorm rages, and each kid makes a wish—“to have chicken fingers at school,” in Lumo’s case; Saffy wishes for “the first thing off the top of her head: buttered spaghetti.” File under “Be careful what you wish for.” Lumo’s and Saffy’s respective physical changes (chicken fingers for fingers, spaghetti for hair) make navigating school a challenge but bring them together in the cafeteria, where they enjoy some new foods—and their new friendship. The plotting could have been sharper: Why do the kids’ bodies suddenly return to normal? And couldn’t the authors have thought up a less old-hat story-ending punch line? Nevertheless, McLaughlin and Neal get by on their charm, and the plot sets up some funny visuals. Salcedo’s cartoony Photoshop art features well-chosen artifacts from a typical kid’s life and captures the mortification of not fitting in, which will be familiar even to readers who have never experienced breaded fingers or noodle hair. Lumo is brown-skinned and dark-haired; Saffy is pale-skinned with disheveled reddish-brown hair.

Wild and wacky. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: June 16, 2026

ISBN: 9780063474154

Page Count: 32

Publisher: HarperPop/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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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)