by Erica S. Perl ; illustrated by Jarrett J. Krosoczka ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2015
This one can be permanently late.
A young boy who’s always late for school learns to be on time and finds a friend along the way.
Never Late Kate is the kind of monitor kids like Marty despise. Just when Marty thinks he might manage to sneak into school undetected (or unrecognized in a cool disguise), there’s Kate handing him a tardy slip. But being on time has its own consequences: Marty would have to curb his imagination and quit wondering at all the amazing things in the world—a turtle, the giant-squid attack from his full laundry basket, a line of ants. Or can he do both? It sure seems that way when Kate comes to Marty’s rescue and gets a tardy slip of her own—a bird’s song, cloud shapes, and comic books are just too tempting. Can they work together to keep their names off new monitor Never Late Nate’s tardy slips? Perl’s tale nicely shows the vulnerable side of someone seen as perfect, but the story’s resolution—African-American Kate pulls Caucasian Marty in a wagon while he continues to explore, invent, and imagine—is highly problematic. Furthermore, Krosoczka’s Kate is a bit too smug about her monitoring duties to make her conversion to friend truly believable, and Marty’s distractibility is uncomplicatedly portrayed as adorable. A final page gives the pair’s list of ways to be on time.
This one can be permanently late. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1661-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
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by Hoda Kotb ; illustrated by Chloe Dominique ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024
Pleasant enough but not particularly original.
Uplifting messages of positivity from the Today show anchor.
Hope springs eternal, so the saying goes. Kotb agrees, here delivering to children the cheery news that hope lives inside all of them and that whatever they might wish for can be theirs. All they need is a sunny outlook, and the possibilities for happy outcomes are virtually endless. Children’s dreams can be in-the-moment ones—like purple ice cream with whipped cream and a cherry—or more far-ranging ones, such as growing tall enough to reach that high shelf easily or for hair that’s long enough to braid. It doesn’t matter, the author reassures young readers. Your aspirations will be realized, so don’t give up on them—just keep believing in them and, most of all, in yourself. Throughout, Kotb calls hope a rainbow, a feeling, a gift, and a wish. Hope is “new friends you’ll find— / friends who are loving and funny and kind.” Hope is “practicing your heart out, letter by letter.” The book’s overarching theme is upbeat, but its bouncy rhyming text is clumsy. The child-appealing illustrations are colorful and lively, though they have a generic look. The cast of wide-eyed characters is racially diverse; some have visible disabilities.
Pleasant enough but not particularly original. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780593624128
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flamingo Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
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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...
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
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