Ideal for the newest of new readers, this tender title’s usefulness may be limited to a very narrow developmental window,...
McPhail’s newest in the I Like to Read series hinges on pivot grammar.
Pivot grammar—with one word substituted in a repeated sentence—is perfect for the very youngest beginning readers. Frontmatter depicts a chubby, white preschooler toting a turtle around before the story begins. Then just 10 statements, all starting, “I hug my…” tell a complete bedtime story. Illustrations showing the targets of the grinning hugger’s affection make each new word absolutely clear. Winsome and astonishingly patient animals calmly endure the child’s enthusiastic attention. Most of the illustrations feature just the child and the creature, person, or object that’s being hugged floating in framed white space. Midway through the book, after the pattern is established, two double-page spreads with more background and details invite new readers to linger and add their own observations. “I hug my rock” features a beach scene. On a tree-hugging spread, a pigtailed brown-skinned child peeking around the fence hints at what comes next: “I hug my friend.” Sometime between hugging dad and hugging mom, the child changes into pajamas, then hugs teddy bear and pillow before falling happily asleep. Or maybe not. A final page with just the words, “I hug” shows the pajama-clad child hugging teddy while gazing at the moon.
Ideal for the newest of new readers, this tender title’s usefulness may be limited to a very narrow developmental window, but it’ll do yeoman work within it . (Early reader. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3854-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
Earnest and well meaning but not quite a touchdown.
In Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Hurts’ motivational picture book, a youngster rebounds from disappointment.
As Jalen heads off on his first day of school, he daydreams about joining the football team, but his friend Trey soon breaks the bad news. The garden club needed more space for vegetables, so the football field was used for planting. There will be no football this year. Jalen is despondent, but his teachers Mrs. Lee and Mr. Barry and bodega owner Mr. Muhammad offer guidance that spurs him and his friends into positive action. They work to flip a nearby empty lot into a football field, with Jalen echoing his mentors’ adages. Once the field is complete, Jalen feels a swell of pride in his and his friends’ work. While the idea of kids working together to effect change is a laudable one, the bland, wordy storytelling won’t inspire young people or hold their attention. Tired, cliched inspirational comments peppered throughout often slow down the narrative, and many adult readers will find the premise—a school dropping a high-interest sports program in favor of a community garden—wildly unrealistic. Though the illustrations are colorful, with a Disney Junior charm, strange stylistic choices, such as signs with odd combinations of scribbles instead of letters, give them an unpolished look. Like Hurts, Jalen is Black; his community is diverse.
Earnest and well meaning but not quite a touchdown. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 10, 2026
ISBN: 9798217040308
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Flamingo Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
A tale of mutual adoration that hits a sweet note.
Little Honey Bunny Funnybunny loves baseball almost as much as she loves her big brother P.J.—though it’s a close-run thing.
Readers familiar with the pranks P.J. plays on his younger sibling in older episodes of the series (most illustrated by Roger Bollen) will be amused—and perhaps a little confused—to see him in the role of perfect big brother after meeting his swaddled little sister for the first time in mama’s lap. But here, along with being a constant companion and “always happy to see her,” he cements his heroic status in her eyes by hitting a home run for his baseball team and then patiently teaching her how to play T-ball. After carefully coaching her and leading her through warm-up exercises, he even sits in the stands, loudly cheering her on as she scores the winning run in her own very first game. “‘You are the best brother a bunny could ever have!’” she burbles. This tale’s a tad blander compared with others centered on P.J. and his sister, but it’s undeniably cheery, with text well structured for burgeoning readers. The all-smiles animal cast in Bowers’ cartoon art features a large and diversely hued family of bunnies sporting immense floppy ears as well as a multispecies crowd of furry onlookers equally varied of color, with one spectator in a wheelchair.
A tale of mutual adoration that hits a sweet note. (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9798217032464
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
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