An authentic and engaging story of sibling dynamics.
In Write’s illustrated children’s book, a young girl’s sisters play with her favorite backpack without her permission, leading to a sticky situation.
The story begins with the four Campbell kids—Ruth, Timmy, Abby, and Annie—returning home from school, all excitedly talking about their day with their grandma, who has come to visit them. Ruth volunteers to help Grandma make a snack while her siblings engage in other activities. After enjoying ants on a log, Ruth must prepare for her piano lesson. Her younger sisters want to play with her backpack, which Ruth has painstakingly decorated with charms and keychains. Ruth says no since she can’t supervise and puts the backpack in her room. Despite Ruth’s request to not touch her backpack while she’s at her lesson, Abby and Annie play with it, resulting in a huge mess and a torn backpack. Ruth finds the twins in the wreckage of her bedroom, and the resulting commotion brings the girls’ mother into the room as well. Ruth is upset, but with guidance from Mom the family discusses the incident (“Mom watched her daughters take turns talking and listening, and she was proud of them”) and resolves it by planning a pajama party to decorate a new backpack. Ruth learns a lesson about giving second chances as she deals with the aftermath of her sisters’ actions. The book emphasizes themes of forgiveness, understanding, and family bonding. The text is detailed and aptly models social-emotional learning and restorative justice techniques between the siblings. It’s a believable scenario; Abby and Annie must miss their favorite TV show to clean up Ruth’s room, likely a reasonable and familiar consequence to most readers in this age range. The illustrations by McAllister and Bouthyette are digitally rendered; they have taken care to give the Black family members a variety of skin tones. The somewhat stiff characters could be drawn to convey more natural movement, however.
An authentic and engaging story of sibling dynamics.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9798990332638
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
A tale of intergenerational bonding to be shared by grandparents and grandchildren.
In talk-show host Fallon and illustrator Ordóñez’s latest picture-book collaboration, an elderly pooch waxes rhapsodic about a life well lived.
Observing Papa sitting in his chair watching TV all day, a young pup says, “I’m starting to think…you don’t do ANYTHING.” So Papa proceeds to list his accomplishments, both big and small, mundane and profound. Some are just a result of being older and physically bigger (being tall enough to reach a high shelf and strong enough to open jars); others include winning a race and performing in a band when he was younger. Eventually, the pup realizes that while Papa may have slowed down in his old age, he’s led a full life. The most satisfying thing about Papa’s life now? Watching his grandchild take center stage: “I can say lots of thoughts / but I choose to be quiet. / I’d rather you discover things and then try it.” Fallon’s straightforward text is sweetly upbeat, though it occasionally lacks flow, forcing incongruous situations together to fit the rhyme scheme (“I cook and I mow, / and I once flew a plane. // I play newspaper puzzles because it’s good for my brain”). Featuring uncluttered, colorful backgrounds, Ordóñez’s child-friendly digital art at times takes on sepia tones, evoking the sense of looking back at old photos or memories. Though the creators tread familiar ground, the love between Papa and his little one is palpable.
A tale of intergenerational bonding to be shared by grandparents and grandchildren. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 13, 2025
ISBN: 9781250393975
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
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