A sensitive rendering of a child’s response to a loved one’s addiction.
A young girl tries to help her older brother, who recently began using drugs.
Dylan used to play with Fiona and comfort his little sister when mean kids teased her, but now he flakes out on taking her to the museum, and she spots him meeting up with a mysterious stranger. He argues with their parents and steals money. After Fiona sees him shoving something into his desk, she speaks up. When their parents realize that Dylan’s been using drugs, they explain what’s going on and arrange for him to enter rehab. Notably, this book makes clear that while drug addiction is harmful, those who use drugs aren’t bad people. The story also addresses the important elements of forgiveness and responsibility: Fiona shows a willingness to believe in her brother’s recovery, and Dylan apologizes for and takes ownership of his past mistakes. The recurring image of a large, blue bedroom door separating Fiona from her brother’s downward spiral acts as a symbol for his secrecy and her lack of understanding. Her emotional reactions range from loneliness to fear, gut-deep tension, guilt, worry, doubt, and optimism, with each one clearly portrayed through Fiona’s facial expressions. Dylan’s drug use is never visually depicted; Mom and Dad refer to it as “using drugs” as well as an “illness” and a “sickness.” Fiona and her family present white.
A sensitive rendering of a child’s response to a loved one’s addiction. (author’s note, further resources) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780807552575
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A solid if message-driven conversation starter about the hard parts of learning.
Children realize their dreams one step at a time in this story about growth mindset.
A child crashes and damages a new bicycle on a dark, rainy day. Attempting a wheelie, the novice cyclist falls onto the sidewalk, grimacing, and, having internalized this setback as failure, vows to never ride again but to “walk…forever.” Then the unnamed protagonist happens upon a glowing orb in the forest, a “thought rearranger-er”—a luminous pink fairy called the Magical Yet. This Yet reminds the child of past accomplishments and encourages perseverance. The second-person rhyming couplets remind readers that mistakes are part of learning and that with patience and effort, children can achieve. Readers see the protagonist learn to ride the bike before a flash-forward shows the child as a capable college graduate confidently designing a sleek new bike. This book shines with diversity: racial, ethnic, ability, and gender. The gender-indeterminate protagonist has light brown skin and exuberant curly locks; Amid the bustling secondary cast, one child uses a prosthesis, and another wears hijab. At no point in the text is the Yet defined as a metaphor for a growth mindset; adults reading with younger children will likely need to clarify this abstract lesson. The artwork is powerful and detailed—pay special attention to the endpapers that progress to show the Yet at work.
A solid if message-driven conversation starter about the hard parts of learning. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-368-02562-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion/LBYR
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
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