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A FRIEND FOR BO

Name: A FRIEND FOR BO
Author: Elisabeth Zuniga
ISBN: 978-0-553-50998-4

by Elisabeth Zuniga ; illustrated by Elisabeth Zuniga ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 26, 2016

Charming and sweet.

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A lonely little rabbit desperately chooses a very unusual friend.

Bo notices other creatures happily playing with friends and is determined to find one of his own. He notices…someone (a large egg) nestled in some reeds, says hello, and getting no reply, decides that this new friend is just shy. He names his friend Rollie, takes him home, and attempts to play all sorts of games with him. Rollie never reacts until Bo paints a smile on his blank face. A picnic turns into a mess as Bo becomes more and more frustrated with this one-sided relationship. Finally, a loud crack reveals “a lovely surprise.” It’s a baby duck and a real live new friend with whom playtime is fun at last. Short, easy sentences are set in white space amid busy, colorful scenes that are filled with details that provide more information than the text. Sharp-eyed readers will spot several animal friendships, and they will of course notice that Rollie is an egg. Unlike Rollie, Bo’s face tells every emotion from loneliness to puzzlement, frustration, and eventually, great joy. Zuniga’s slight tale walks the knife edge between whimsy and treacle. Young readers might laugh at Bo’s excessive cluelessness, but they might just cheer when Rollie hatches and the little duck finally becomes Bo’s longed-for friend.

Charming and sweet. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Jan. 26, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-553-50998-4

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

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...

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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)