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LEROY HAS SOMETHING TO SAY

Name: LEROY HAS SOMETHING TO SAY
Author: Emily Rosenthal
ISBN: 9781547615834

by Emily Rosenthal ; illustrated by Thai My Phuong ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 7, 2026

A tale of kindness and bridged connections.

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Can a plant-loving spirit manage to make a human friend?

Leroy the ghost—the white, diaphanous kind, but with a sun hat—tends the plants in an abandoned greenhouse attached to Rosebud Manor. Typically, the families who move into the manor are unreceptive to his friendship overtures: Leroy, who can’t speak, has tried waving a yellow rose, but “no one seem[s] to speak the language of flowers,” and the freaked-out humans inevitably move away. The arrival of a new family (two moms and their children, Tara and Hadar) fills Leroy with hope. Like him, they are plant lovers. But when the family spots him, only Tara, who, like Leroy, doesn’t speak verbally, is unafraid. She recognizes Leroy’s yellow rose as “a symbol of friendship” and shows him how he can use her tablet to communicate. (An author’s note directed at young readers discusses Augmentative and Alternative Communication.) Rosenthal’s first picture book twines Leroy’s and Tara’s respective communication challenges without being heavy-handed; Tara’s helpfulness, not her disability, is the emphasis here. Thai’s subdued, digitally finished graphite-pencil art, which is suitably awash in garden greens and earth tones, matches this feelings-focused story’s tenderness. One of the mothers is pale-skinned, as is Tara, while the other, like Hadar, is brown-skinned. Language suggests the family is Jewish.

A tale of kindness and bridged connections. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: July 7, 2026

ISBN: 9781547615834

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Review Posted Online: April 6, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S PARANORMAL & SUPERNATURAL

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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)

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Jim Valeri

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

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FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

by Marilyn Sadler ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2024

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.

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A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.

Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)