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
New parents of daughters will eat these up and perhaps pass on the lessons learned.
All the reasons why a daughter needs a mother.
Each spread features an adorable cartoon animal parent-child pair on the recto opposite a rhyming verse: “I’ll always support you in giving your all / in every endeavor, the big and the small, / and be there to catch you in case you should fall. / I hope you believe this is true.” A virtually identical book, Why a Daughter Needs a Dad, publishes simultaneously. Both address standing up for yourself and your values, laughing to ease troubles, being thankful, valuing friendship, persevering and dreaming big, being truthful, thinking through decisions, and being open to differences, among other topics. Though the sentiments/life lessons here and in the companion title are heartfelt and important, there are much better ways to deliver them. These books are likely to go right over children’s heads and developmental levels (especially with the rather advanced vocabulary); their parents are the more likely audience, and for them, the books provide some coaching in what kids need to hear. The two books are largely interchangeable, especially since there are so few references to mom or dad, but one spread in each book reverts to stereotype: Dad balances the two-wheeler, and mom helps with clothing and hair styles. Since the books are separate, it aids in customization for many families.
New parents of daughters will eat these up and perhaps pass on the lessons learned. (Picture book. 4-8, adult)Pub Date: May 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-6781-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
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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