A fun pair of characters and a good friendship lesson make for a worthy dragon tale.
The friendship of a dragon and a boy is tested by an act of anger.
Ozzie, a big green dragon, and Prince Zebedee, a tan-skinned boy with curly dark hair, are great friends who “made beautiful music together” and “kept each other’s feet warm” cuddling at night. But a card game at the edge of a forest creates a rift in the relationship when the prince accuses Ozzie of cheating. Ozzie, angered, eats the prince. The prince is safely, stubbornly inside the dragon’s huge belly, but he still refuses to speak to Ozzie. Ozzie, saddened, eats up chunks of a village, because “sometimes when dragons are lonely, they make bad choices.” Of course, the two eventually reconcile; the town and Ozzie are regurgitated but not before both friends learn a little about anger management and forgiveness. Digital artist Kalaitzidis’ debut picture book is most notable for the expressiveness of its characters. Whether they are furious or blissfully at play, Ozzie and Zebedee make a charming pair against detail-filled, clever backgrounds. An older, tan-skinned character seen knitting in the backgrounds of many pages, for instance, appears to be Kalaitzidis herself, judging from the cover-flap author picture. While the text never quite soars, the illustrations and the overall story feel true and relatable even if most friends don’t eat each other. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A fun pair of characters and a good friendship lesson make for a worthy dragon tale. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-46418-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Flamingo Books
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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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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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