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MY WORDS

Name: MY WORDS
Author: Grant Snider
ISBN: 978-0-06-290780-6

by Grant Snider ; illustrated by Grant Snider ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 27, 2020

Probably more for adults than for the children in their lives.

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A young child develops a love for vocabulary.

Ava tells readers, right away, “I love words.” With bright chalk the white, pigtailed writer scrawls basic words like “yes,” “happy,” “cat,” and “rain” in green, blue, yellow, and pink. The narrator takes readers through the process of language acquisition, first as an infant who “started with no words,” expressing baby talk like “oooh eee gaga yaaa” while absorbing real words (“book / uh-oh / dog / no”), finally saying “ba!” while pointing to a ball. As the story proceeds, Ava gains more and more language, learning to talk “to friends in marvelous ways,” culminating in writerly ambitions; the last page shows the pink-dressed, cowboy-booted child holding taped-together pages entitled “Ava’s Book,” reading aloud to an assortment of toys and stuffed animals. The prose rhymes loosely, bouncing ahead in a rhythm that is a pleasure to read aloud. Unfortunately, while the miracle of language may be astonishing to an adult watching it, it is perhaps less than enthralling for a child going through it. With the exception of “marvelous,” all the words used are short and simple, appropriate for young children but obscuring the larger goal of reveling in a love of language. Ava, who is paper-white, is a pleasant-enough narrator, but there’s little here to hook child readers beyond, perhaps, pure identification.

Probably more for adults than for the children in their lives. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-06-290780-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ACTION & ADVENTURE FICTION | CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

- BOOK REVIEW
POETRY COMICS
by Grant Snider ; illustrated by Grant Snider

- BOOK REVIEW
NOTHING EVER HAPPENS ON A GRAY DAY
by Grant Snider ; illustrated by Grant Snider

- BOOK REVIEW
ONE BOY WATCHING
by Grant Snider ; illustrated by Grant Snider

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
A PERFECT PLACE TO PLAY
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Jim Valeri

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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THE CRAYONS GO BACK TO SCHOOL

by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 16, 2023

Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings.

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The Crayons head back to class in this latest series entry.

Daywalt’s expository text lays out the basics as various Crayons wave goodbye to the beach, choose a first-day outfit, greet old friends, and make new ones. As in previous outings, the perennially droll illustrations and hand-lettered Crayon-speak drive the humor. The ever wrapperless Peach, opining, “What am I going to wear?” surveys three options: top hat and tails, a chef’s toque and apron, and a Santa suit. New friends Chunky Toddler Crayon (who’s missing a bite-sized bit of their blue point) and Husky Toddler Crayon speculate excitedly on their common last name: “I wonder if we’re related!” White Crayon, all but disappearing against the page’s copious white space, sits cross-legged reading a copy of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man. And Yellow and Orange, notable for their previous existential argument about the color of the sun, find agreement in science class: Jupiter, clearly, is yellow AND orange. Everybody’s excited about art class—“Even if they make a mess. Actually…ESPECIALLY if they make a mess!” Here, a spread of crayoned doodles of butterflies, hearts, and stars is followed by one with fulsome scribbles. Fans of previous outings will spot cameos from Glow in the Dark and yellow-caped Esteban (the Crayon formerly known as Pea Green). (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings. (Picture book. 4-6)