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THE VIRTUEPOPS

HOW TO VALUE VIRTUE AMID COVID-19, STRESS, AND SUFFERING

A sprawling, imaginative tale that makes basic moral concepts seem like wizardry.

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Kids learn about virtuous behavior through a magical cartoon in author/illustrator Angelina’s children’s fantasy series entry.

This yarn finds young Michael and his 4-year-old brother, Walker, visiting Grandma and Uncle Steveo and looking for something to watch on TV on a snowy day. They hit upon the show Virtuepops Adventures in Virtueland, whose eponymous characters embody prominent virtues and frolic in a rainbow-colored, diamond-dusted realm. They include Believing B, who represents the virtues of faith, cleanliness, and exercise; Persevering Philip, who promotes courage and diligence; Sharing Stephen; Patient Peter; Loving Lucy; Respectful Ruth; Humble Helena; and Truthful Therese. They each have nemeses with whom to tussle, including Selfish Susie, Lazy Lobble, and Liar Lester, but the King of Virtueland, resplendent atop his Spirit Bird, is always ready to swoop in to ensure that virtue triumphs. Michael and company are mesmerized by the show, and when they fall asleep, they traverse a rainbow tunnel into Virtueland, where they sprout wings and participate in mild adventures; for example, when Selfish Susie snatches Grandma’s beloved golden cross necklace, Uncle Steveo defeats her with green snowballs. The book’s main purpose is to instruct kids in various virtues, such as following the Food Octagon as a guide to balanced meals. These lessons are conveyed through poems, songs, homilies, and very simple games. The narrative’s darkest moment comes when Grandma is stricken with an anxiety attack, occasioned by her prophetic vision of the Covid-19 pandemic; once she recovers, she uses the incident to teach the value of hand-washing, stifling sneezes and coughs, and masking, among other things.

Angelina, a former educator, elaborates Virtueland at great length, filling the story with plenty of bright hues—she includes many beguiling black-and-white line drawings for kids to color—along with fanciful figures, talking animals, tasty treats, and sparkling landscapes where wish-fulfillment reigns. Her fictional world feels a bit like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with the spiritual symbolism of the Chronicles of Narnia and couched in the gentle cheerfulness of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Her writing is usually calibrated to a very young audience that likes repetitive motifs and isn’t fussy about meter, whether the topic is humility (“Help me, please, to be humble. To ask for help, give thankful steps, so I don’t crumble”), table manners (“remember to share your Divine bread and your Sacred juice”), or funny animals (“Croak, croak, croak says the frog, as he sits in the lake floating on a log”). Occasionally, the text veers jarringly into advanced subjects; Believing B’s poem “Heart-wise Exercise Pulse Check,” for instance, instructs readers to “place the index and middle finger just to the side of the Adam's apple, in the soft, hollow area.” Angelina intends the book as a resource for teaching virtues to kids in pre-K through eighth grade, but most of it is so simplistic that some may consider it cloying. Still, parents and teachers will find a browsable wealth of material to focus younger children on ethical precepts.

A sprawling, imaginative tale that makes basic moral concepts seem like wizardry.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 978-1-970157-31-4

Page Count: 369

Publisher: Story Merchant Books

Review Posted Online: June 16, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022

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LITTLE DAYMOND LEARNS TO EARN

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.

How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!

John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)

Pub Date: March 21, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

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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