A great reminder that fun isn’t necessarily what you do, but who you share it with.
Max spends most of the summer thinking up exciting activities, but the perfect boredom buster is right under his nose.
After a busy first day of summer, Max is officially bored. As he treks around town, he daydreams about the wonderful things he could be doing (“What if I…was at the park?” “What if I…was at the zoo?”), but nothing he tries satisfies him. All the while, he’s trailed by little sister Mimi, who’s genuinely delighted to be spending time with her brother. As Max’s what-ifs get increasingly fantastical (bouncing on a giant serving of Jell-O, discovering an underground kingdom), Mimi finally interjects: “What if WE?” She reframes Max’s ideas as things they could do together, and though her suggestions initially mirror Max’s, they become more and more grounded, culminating with a plaintive “Can’t we just be here…together?” The book closes on the last day of summer, with Max taking part in the same activities he did on the first day, but this time he involves Mimi, and the possibilities are endless. Lovingly capturing both the power of imagination and the push-pull dynamics of sibling bonds, Yoh's inspired artwork combines full-page spreads with comic panels, prose with dialogue in speech bubbles, and realistic depictions with wild, richly hued fantasies. Pale-skinned, dark-haired Max and Mimi read East Asian.
A great reminder that fun isn’t necessarily what you do, but who you share it with. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9780316377201
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.
In this latest in the series, Little Blue Truck, driven by pal Toad, is challenged to a countryside race by Racer Red, a sleek, low-slung vehicle.
Blue agrees, and the race is on. Although the two start off “hood to hood / and wheel to wheel,” they switch positions often as they speed their way over dusty country roads. Blue’s farm friends follow along to share in the excitement and shout out encouragement; adult readers will have fun voicing the various animal sounds. Short rhyming verses on each page and several strategic page turns add drama to the narrative, but soft, mottled effects in the otherwise colorful illustrations keep the competition from becoming too intense. Racer Red crosses the finish line first, but Blue is a gracious loser, happy to have worked hard. That’s a new concept for Racer Red, who’s laser-focused on victory but takes Blue’s words (“win or lose, it’s fun to try!”) to heart—a revelation that may lead to worthwhile storytime discussions. When Blue’s farm animal friends hop into the truck for the ride home, Racer Red tags along and learns a second lesson, one about speed. “Fast is fun, / and slow is too, / as long as you’re / with friends.”
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063387843
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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