Just right indeed.
Just 27 words, used repeatedly and modeled by an adorable anthropomorphic bunny, provide practice for the youngest beginning readers.
A complete, if simple, narrative reflects an experience children greet with varying degrees of delight and dismay: outgrowing favorite things. The first five sentences begin: “I am too big for….” The final seven sentences proclaim “I am just right for…” and replace outgrown items with big-kid versions of the same object: crib and bed, tricycle and bike, etc. At the hinge point of the narrative, readers are assured of Grandpa’s consistent love, even as the bunny changes. The pained expression on Grandpa bunny’s face when he picks the growing bunny up on verso is priceless, but on the facing page, both bunnies are smiling because “I am just right for him to hug.” The repeated sentence pattern guarantees success for new readers. The book’s design minimizes distraction so they will focus on the text. Each picture of the charming, nongendered bunny against creamy pastel backgrounds is paired with a single sentence printed in a large, clear type. The final pages drive home the positive message. The bunny is shown stacking blocks and reading with a younger sister while proclaiming, “I am just right for my sister. / I am just right for this book. / I am just right.”
Just right indeed. (Early reader. 4-8)Pub Date: March 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4106-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
As insubstantial as hot air.
A diverse cast of children first makes a fleet of hot air balloons and then takes to the sky in them.
Lifestyle maven Gaines uses this activity as a platform to celebrate diversity in learning and working styles. Some people like to work together; others prefer a solo process. Some take pains to plan extensively; others know exactly what they want and jump right in. Some apply science; others demonstrate artistic prowess. But “see how beautiful it can be when / our differences share the same sky?” Double-page spreads leading up to this moment of liftoff are laid out such that rhyming abcb quatrains typically contain one or two opposing concepts: “Some of us are teachers / and share what we know. / But all of us are learners. / Together is how we grow!” In the accompanying illustration, a bespectacled, Asian-presenting child at a blackboard lectures the other children on “balloon safety.” Gaines’ text has the ring of sincerity, but the sentiment is hardly an original one, and her verse frequently sacrifices scansion for rhyme. Sometimes it abandons both: “We may not look / or work or think the same, / but we all have an / important part to play.” Swaney’s delicate, pastel-hued illustrations do little to expand on the text, but they are pretty. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.2-by-18.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 70.7% of actual size.)
As insubstantial as hot air. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4003-1423-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tommy Nelson
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard.
A grouchy sapling on a Christmas tree farm finds that there are better things than lights and decorations for its branches.
A Grinch among the other trees on the farm is determined never to become a sappy Christmas tree—and never to leave its spot. Its determination makes it so: It grows gnarled and twisted and needle-less. As time passes, the farm is swallowed by the suburbs. The neighborhood kids dare one another to climb the scary, grumpy-looking tree, and soon, they are using its branches for their imaginative play, the tree serving as a pirate ship, a fort, a spaceship, and a dragon. But in winter, the tree stands alone and feels bereft and lonely for the first time ever, and it can’t look away from the decorated tree inside the house next to its lot. When some parents threaten to cut the “horrible” tree down, the tree thinks, “Not now that my limbs are full of happy children,” showing how far it has come. Happily for the tree, the children won’t give up so easily, and though the tree never wished to become a Christmas tree, it’s perfectly content being a “trick or tree.” Martinez’s digital illustrations play up the humorous dichotomy between the happy, aspiring Christmas trees (and their shoppers) and the grumpy tree, and the diverse humans are satisfyingly expressive.
Just the thing for anyone with a Grinch-y tree of their own in the yard. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-7335-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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