A relatable, constructive story emphasizing elements of positivity and mindfulness.
Gregory’s picture book demonstrates ways kids can counteract negative thoughts.
An unnamed girl’s mom asks her to complete tasks, like making a card for her grandfather and baking muffins for school. Although the illustrations show her reticently partaking in the activities, the girl responds to her mother, “Okay, but I’m NOT very good at it.” When Mom (who is absent from the illustrations) asks why she feels that way, the child says, “Because that’s what my brain said.” Her mother implores her to listen to her heart instead, explaining “It speaks very softly, like dandelion seeds landing on grass….Your BRAIN might try to BUTT in, but don’t pay any attention to it.” The girl attempts to complete more tasks, but she tries to alter her immediate negative thoughts. For example, as she builds a model airplane, she “talks back” to her brain (“You don’t get to be the boss all the time.”) The child explains that now she listens to her heart: “It doesn’t matter if I’m NOT very good at something…the most important thing is to just try.” Miller’s colorful pencil illustrations mostly echo the text, offering interesting background scenes such as grassy fields and dandelions. Some offer subtext. For example, the child is shown smiling alongside her completed projects, as when she gives a thumbs-up while holding a tray of baked muffins. The child has dark hair and eyes and presents White. Gregory offers actionable, kid-friendly tools to help readers enhance their self-esteem in a plausible and positive way.
A relatable, constructive story emphasizing elements of positivity and mindfulness.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-5255-7645-4
Page Count: 30
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A silly snack guaranteed to satisfy the funny bone; kids will eat it up and ask for more.
In this droll tale, ostensibly straightforward instructions are a recipe for absurdity.
To obtain the two slices of bread that a jelly sandwich calls for, a brown-skinned youngster named Frankie instructs readers to head to the store. But NOT to the bakery aisle! Instead, buy “one orange [traffic] cone, scuba flippers, and a yellow inner tube.” Using those items to fashion a duck disguise, you’ll score the bread from a brown-skinned elder feeding wildfowl in the park. And if the ducks see through your pretense, you might have to practice your “quack-cent.” Similar maneuvers are required to open the jelly jar: You’ll need peanuts, a playground with a “whirly-go-round,” and an elephant with a strong trunk grip. (But if the jar is carelessly opened upside down, you’ll get a “jellyphant.”) To spread the jelly, you must first scrub a dog in your bathtub. (Dip the clean tail in the jelly, then pet and praise the dog until it happily wags its tail over the bread slices.) Putting the slices together requires a knightly tournament, but cutting the sandwich, “the least complicated step of all,” involves training a hamster to ride a unicycle. The final pages propose an alternative (but just as outrageous) method and invite readers to think up their own ridiculous techniques. Burach’s scenarios are inventive and hilarious, while his exaggerated cartoon illustrations reinforce the delicious jokiness each step of the way.
A silly snack guaranteed to satisfy the funny bone; kids will eat it up and ask for more. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 21, 2026
ISBN: 9781338877090
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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