Delightfully fanciful, with copious funny details to pore over.
Imagine a sandcastle big enough to hold an ice-skating rink, a greenhouse, a dinosaur skeleton, and galas for kings and queens.
A small child at the edge of the ocean begins a project. “I love building castles in the sand. So I built a sandcastle,” explains the narrator. The visual story frame of an outing to a jam-packed beach doesn’t quite offer a nonfantasy opening: Careful perusal reveals a bed, an elephant, a mummy, and an igloo among the multitudinous, tiny-figured human beachgoers. Soon the quiet child’s golden sandcastle rises up off the top of the page. Fine, light brown lines detail the castle’s architectural features; the child balances delicately atop a turret as the castle reaches eight times the protagonist’s height, then stands inside the castle, gazing out windows that vividly show the real ocean outside. Kings and queens arrive to feast and dance. Everything’s glamorous and copacetic until, suddenly, the sand itself is a problem. It’s in the royal almond strudel. It’s in the armor of sobbing knights. It’s in a king’s fig-milk bath. Everyone’s angry. So the calm builder takes rambunctious action, bringing sand, water, and mood dramatically full circle. Tsarfati’s huge cast is happily multiracial and multinational (the protagonist is paper-white), but some of the diverse portrayals unfortunately rely on cultural stereotypes.
Delightfully fanciful, with copious funny details to pore over. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-1143-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
An instructive tale about big feelings, lightened up by a furious kid’s theatrics.
An angry child attempts to calm down.
A kid with paper-white skin, clad in a blue dress and striped tights, makes an absurd request: “Can we get a pet penguin, name it Marshmallow, and feed it carrots?” Mom, off-stage, says simply, “Not today,” and the tot transforms into a rather odd creature: a spicy nugget! The nugget is imperfectly ovoid in form, with red rosy cheeks, rage-filled dot-eyes, and a spiraling black-hole mouth. The sight gag works beautifully: When one feels truly angry, all poise disappears, leaving only a flailing ball of rage. Our protagonist hurls a teddy bear, unsuccessfully tries out a list of calming methods, and finally retreats to bed, where “I can feel my breathing; I know that I am safe.” The youngster reverts back to human form, and Mom arrives with kind words: “You are not your big feelings. You are not your angry thoughts.” The takeaway is unmistakable, especially at the story’s conclusion: It’s OK to get mad and important to practice coping strategies. The young narrator expresses emotion with fabulous vigor, though the story’s lilting rhyme scheme occasionally distracts from these outbursts with cuteness. Nonetheless, this increasingly enraged nugget-child is irresistible; anyone who’s grappled with overwhelming emotions will relate—in a word, everyone.
An instructive tale about big feelings, lightened up by a furious kid’s theatrics. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9798217042142
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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