by Deborah Ruddell ; illustrated by Joan Rankin ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 24, 2015
A scrumptious set of food-themed poems for budding gourmets, ripe for hours of read-aloud fun.
Ruddell’s collection of 21 bite-sized poems whets even the littlest of literary appetites.
Divided (sometimes arbitrarily) according to the seasons, her poems hopscotch topic, length and approach but are consistently charming. In rhyming verse, she describes a “lickety-split” spring picnic with green grapes, baked beans “and your bow-wow and your blue jeans.” “Speaking of Peaches…” pays tribute to summer’s favorite stone fruit, its “flowery fragrance” and “flannelpajamaty skin.” Fall’s “21 Things to Do with an Apple” is a staccato litany of the apple’s many wondrous uses (“Twirl it / Float it / Caramel-coat it”), while winter’s “The World’s Biggest Birthday Cake” boasts vivid imagery: “The cake was a whopper, and I’ve heard it said, / the sprinkles alone were the size of your head.” Readers may, however, scratch their heads at the odd character—an ogre here or Dracula there (in a Halloween-timed poem). True to form, Rankin’s muted watercolors match the whimsy of Ruddell’s words. Ants frolic in the icy, pink waters of Watermelon Lake and sunbathe on the pale green shore; children wait anxiously, saltshaker in hand, to pounce on popcorn astronauts in puffy suits hurtling through the air. Animals—cats, dogs, storks and more—smile and smirk with expressive detail.
A scrumptious set of food-themed poems for budding gourmets, ripe for hours of read-aloud fun. (Picture book/poetry. 4-10)Pub Date: March 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4424-6555-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2014
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by Deborah Ruddell & illustrated by Joan Rankin
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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...
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
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
by Nikki Giovanni ; illustrated by Erin K. Robinson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 27, 2022
A lushly illustrated homage to librarians who provide a welcome and a home away from home for all who enter.
A love letter to libraries.
A Black child, with hair in two puffballs tied with yellow ribbons, a blue dress with a Peter Pan collar, and black patent leather Mary Janes, helps Grandmother with the housework, then, at Grandmother’s suggestion, heads to the library. The child’s eagerness to go, with two books under an arm and one in their hand, suggests that this is a favorite destination. The books’ wordless covers emphasize their endless possibilities. The protagonist’s description of the library makes clear that they are always free to be themselves there—whether they feel happy or sad, whether they’re reading mysteries or recipes, and whether they feel “quick and smart” or “contained and cautious.” Robinson’s vibrant, carefully composed digital illustrations, with bright colors that invite readers in and textures and patterns in every image, effectively capture the protagonist’s passion for reading and appreciation for a space where they feel accepted regardless of disposition. In her author’s note, Giovanni states that she spent summers visiting her grandmother in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she went to the Carnegie Branch of the Lawson McGhee Library. She expresses gratitude for Mrs. Long, the librarian, who often traveled to the main library to get books that Giovanni could not find in their segregated branch. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A lushly illustrated homage to librarians who provide a welcome and a home away from home for all who enter. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-358-38765-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Versify/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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by Nikki Giovanni ; illustrated by Ashley Bryan
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by Nikki Giovanni & illustrated by Bryan Collier
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edited by Nikki Giovanni and illustrated by Kristen Balouch
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