Shy Lily needs time to get used to all the new faces and people she is meeting at Shalom House, an assisted-living facility where her mother does volunteer work. Although Mrs. Seidel compliments Lily on her new shoes and Dr. Berman encourages her to smile, Lily is not quite ready to say “hello” the way her mother suggests. Mrs. Rosenbaum, Lily’s former neighbor and friend who has just moved into Shalom House, tells everyone, “She’ll be ready when she’s ready.” Several visits later, Lily is more than ready not only to say “hello” but to share in the activities and even celebrate a special day with her newfound friends. Pencil-and-gouache illustrations brightly delineate an elder community of kind, thoughtful faces opposite one curious and eager-to-please little girl who learns to temper her shyness while she welcomes a new set of friends into her young life. A gentle and satisfying introduction to a senior residential situation that is becoming ever more typical; that this is a Jewish facility in no way compromises the book's relevance to all audiences. (Picture book. 4-6)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-7613-4511-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kar-Ben
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Will give children the emotional distance to process their own first-day jitters.
Everyone’s nervous about going to school—even your backpack!
After months of relaxing in the closet over the summer, a green backpack quivers with nerves when it hears the words back to school. The backpack has to be pried from the closet by a light-skinned child with a blond ponytail. Going to school is, we learn, a far more terrifying prospect for a backpack. “First you open my mouth and shove a bunch of strange new books and binders down my throat.” Slung over the child’s shoulders, the backpack “can’t even see where I’m going.” At school, the backpack is smashed, stuffed, and dragged. But the worst part of school is that the backpack doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere—a feeling that will be familiar to many readers. All that changes when it crashes into another backpack worn by a child with dark skin, short curly hair, and glasses. The punny moral of the story? Life is better with a friend “because you don’t have to carry everything alone.” This funny romp will leave readers feeling empowered for their own first days. Strategically placed black pages with white lettering ramp up the drama. In Toro’s exaggerated cartoon illustrations, the backpack is wonderfully expressive, its eyes and zipper mouth conveying panic, nausea, a longing to belong, and, finally, happiness. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Will give children the emotional distance to process their own first-day jitters. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9780316628341
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Uncomplicated and worthwhile for any age.
Parr focuses his simplistic childlike art and declarative sentences on gratitude for the pleasures and wonders of a child’s everyday life.
Using images of both kids and animals, each colorful scene in bold primary colors declaims a reason to be thankful. “I am thankful for my hair because it makes me unique” shows a yellow-faced child with a wild purple coiffure, indicating self-esteem. An elephant with large pink ears happily exclaims, “I am thankful for my ears because they let me hear words like ‘I love you.’ ” Humor is interjected with, “I am thankful for underwear because I like to wear it on my head.” (Parents will hope that it is clean, but potty-humor–loving children probably won’t care.) Children are encouraged to be thankful for feet, music, school, vacations and the library, “because it is filled with endless adventures,” among other things. The book’s cheery, upbeat message is clearly meant to inspire optimistic gratitude; Parr exhorts children to “remember some [things to be thankful for] every day.”
Uncomplicated and worthwhile for any age. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-316-18101-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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