An empathetic tale, ideal for helping little ones ride out the storm of turbulent emotions.
Big life changes bring unexpected emotions.
After the protagonist’s best friend, Ana, moves away, the child experiences a whirlwind of feelings. The days seem to stretch on forever, and school feels different. Quietly, the crocodiles arrive. The brown one is loud, leaving overturned toys and household objects in the wake of her tantrums; the gray one’s sobbing fits keep the youngster from reading. Only the child can see them, and though the protagonist attempts to ignore them, they continue to intrude. Finally, on a family vacation, the youngster confronts both crocodiles: The child hugs the gray one (Sadness) and cries with her, then screams with the brown one (Anger) until their rage subsides. Having achieved catharsis, the young narrator feels much better and looks forward to spending a day with Ana in the future. Meza’s straightforward, compassionate text is firmly rooted in children’s natural—at times seemingly irrational—emotions. Created with paper, colored pencil, and Photoshop, her naïve, earth-toned illustrations make use of geometric shapes, complementing the story well. Sharp-eyed readers will spot Sadness and Anger lurking in the background of numerous spreads early on—underscoring the idea that complex feelings are always with us, even if we aren’t consciously aware of them. The protagonist is tan-skinned; other characters vary in skin tone.
An empathetic tale, ideal for helping little ones ride out the storm of turbulent emotions. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593859148
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Rocky Pond Books/Penguin
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
Fun times, fond friends, and a festive farmyard setting—little ones will be charmed.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Toad and Little Blue Truck get ready for a hayride.
After the titular vehicle is loaded with hay, Toad is nowhere to be found. “Beep! Beep! Beep! Where are you, Toad?” asks Little Blue Truck. All the barnyard animals look for him. Sheep searches the meadow. Goose and Duck check the pond. Others pitch in, too, but Toad seems to have disappeared…until Hen hears snoring coming from the pile of hay in the back of Little Blue Truck. Although the text’s scansion is imperfect in places (adults may want to pre-read to ensure a smooth read-aloud), the bouncy meter and rhyming text nevertheless capture the energy of the search and the farmyard community’s concern for Toad’s safety, making this a solid storytime choice. Eye-catching illustrations with rich, fully saturated colors balance the right level of detail while still highlighting the animal that is the focus of each verse. By introducing one farm animal at a time, Schertle also helps the youngest readers begin to identify barnyard animals by name and understand their unique farm homes. Traditional animal sounds are part of the text, and listeners will add them to their vocabulary. It all ends with the promised hayride, bringing the tale to a joyous ending.
Fun times, fond friends, and a festive farmyard setting—little ones will be charmed. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2026
ISBN: 9780063436121
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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BOOK REVIEW
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