A little girl has three toys who are best friends: Stingray, a stuffed stingray who claims to know it all, Lumphy; a daring and curious stuffed buffalo; and Plastic, a bouncing, red toy who has yet to find out her true identity. The three toys love the little girl, and life in her bedroom is fine and—usually— predictable, but when the toys go out into the wide world outside, almost anything can happen. Six stories, accompanied by Zelinsky’s lively black-and-white illustrations, tell of their escapades and discoveries, including an eventful trip to the beach, the development of an intimate knowledge of the washing machine, the pitfalls of sleeping atop the bed and an understanding of the importance of birthdays. A blend of Toy Story and the stories of Johnny Gruelle and A.A. Milne, this is a solid collection that will serve as a good read-aloud, as well as a nice choice for young readers, who will enjoy exploring the warm, secret world of toys. (Fiction. 6-10)
Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-375-83604-7
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
A delightful, understated triumph.
Sal Miller’s sense of self is shaken just before the start of first grade.
The protagonist of Oh, Sal (2022) confronts new challenges. For one thing, Sal’s younger sister, Poppy, now 2, is sharing what used to be Sal’s bedroom with her. And Sal’s high expectations for the first day of school are disappointed when her best friend and next-door neighbor, Griffen, is assigned to a different classroom. Griffen’s teacher, the charmingly named Ms. Flowers, seems pretty perfect. By contrast, in less bubbly Ms. McCormick’s class, Sal’s nametag mistakenly reads “Sally,” and Ms. McCormick’s tour of the school is fairly dull. Sal—bright and full of opinions and interest in the world around her—wears her feelings and hopes close to the surface. Fairly sophisticated language and observations stretch the target audience to include third and fourth graders for whom first grade may be a distant memory (or even, for some, never experienced in person). Henkes’ graceful, easy prose, sharp insights, and impressive ability to convey the way children think shine here. He invites readers to empathize with Sal, feeling her disappointment and annoyance with a world that doesn’t always understand her as well as the satisfaction with small victories that bring her back to herself: getting used to a major haircut and learning to connect with Ms. McCormick. Spot art from Henkes is scattered throughout. Characters’ races and ethnicities aren't mentioned; previous titles cued characters as white.
A delightful, understated triumph. (Fiction. 6-10)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9780063389625
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
Feline fanciers will snap this up like catnip.
Catty Corner, who’s half cat, half girl, struggles when she attends school for the first time.
Until recently, Catty’s been homeschooled by her half-cat mom (her father is fully human), who teaches her subjects such as reading and string chasing, as well as the importance of following rules like “no midnight zoomies” and “no knocking over shiny things.” But when her mom gets an amazing job at the fish cannery, Catty contends with a whole new challenge: third grade at a real school. On her first day, Catty manages to break every single one of her parents’ big rules for outside the house: no hissing, scratching, or biting. She goes home crestfallen: “Today will go down in hissssstory as the worst first day of school ever.” But when her mom gives her a diary in which both Granny Tabby and Mom detailed their own difficult days as the only half cats, half girls at school, Catty slowly changes her attitude. Careful readers may wonder why Catty’s parents never socialized her with other children and why Granny Tabby’s diary wasn’t shared with her in advance of her first day of school. That said, with its pawsitively adorable puns and sweetly spunky protagonist, this quickly paced tale will please cat lovers; young readers looking for relatably awkward school stories will find it charming, too. The text is broken up by occasional watercolorlike illustrations depicting Catty as light-skinned with ginger hair and tail; her schoolmates are diverse.
Feline fanciers will snap this up like catnip. (Chapter book. 6-9)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781454956471
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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