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HANA IGUANA HAS TO WANNA

Name: HANA IGUANA HAS TO WANNA
Author: Hana McKnight
ISBN: 9781969146619

by Hana McKnight ; illustrated by Suzanne Pell ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 7, 2026

A sweet tale about persistence whose text outshines its illustrations.

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In McKnight’s illustrated children’s book, an insecure elementary schooler with a stuffed iguana is determined to find her “thing.”

Many kids at her school have athletic hobbies—all Hana has is a stuffed iguana with a crooked eye named Iggy. Hana attempts to play various sports, like soccer and gymnastics, but each time she tries, she fails to accomplish what her friends do so effortlessly. When Hana complains that she’s not good at anything, her mother replies, “You don’t have to be good at everything. Just remember what I always say—Hana Iguana has to wanna.” Hana is helping her aunt Mimi clear out her attic later that week when she comes across a pair of shiny roller skates that she definitely wants to try out. Her initial attempts at skating outside are rough, but she’s determined to improve. With Iggy by her side, Hana practices in secret until she decides to sign up for her school’s talent show to show off her new skills. The afternoon before the performance, Hana realizes that Iggy—her biggest cheerleader—has fallen out of her backpack. Kind words from her mother reinforce her flagging confidence, and she does spectacularly onstage, learning that she can do whatever she sets her mind to. This debut work from McKnight is a simple but effective story about having the courage to keep trying to find your “thing” and be good at it. Hana is an admirable character who experiences a realistic roller coaster of emotions, though the world around her is less fleshed-out. Pell’s illustrations are warm and cozy from a distance, but many of her images show inconsistencies and missing details upon closer inspection—for example, Hana is missing the entire lower half of her body on page 24. Hana is depicted as a brown-skinned girl with black curly hair.

A sweet tale about persistence whose text outshines its illustrations.

Pub Date: May 7, 2026

ISBN: 9781969146619

Page Count: 78

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: June 11, 2026

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

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SPAGHETTI HEAD & CHICKEN FINGERS

by Rhett McLaughlin & Link Neal ; illustrated by Erica Salcedo ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2026

Wild and wacky.

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A picture book from the comedy duo known as Rhett & Link, creators of the online juggernaut Good Mythical Morning.

Lumo is obsessed with chicken fingers; Saffy, who is new to town and anxious about starting school, finds comfort in the only food she likes: buttered spaghetti. The night before the first day of school, a thunderstorm rages, and each kid makes a wish—“to have chicken fingers at school,” in Lumo’s case; Saffy wishes for “the first thing off the top of her head: buttered spaghetti.” File under “Be careful what you wish for.” Lumo’s and Saffy’s respective physical changes (chicken fingers for fingers, spaghetti for hair) make navigating school a challenge but bring them together in the cafeteria, where they enjoy some new foods—and their new friendship. The plotting could have been sharper: Why do the kids’ bodies suddenly return to normal? And couldn’t the authors have thought up a less old-hat story-ending punch line? Nevertheless, McLaughlin and Neal get by on their charm, and the plot sets up some funny visuals. Salcedo’s cartoony Photoshop art features well-chosen artifacts from a typical kid’s life and captures the mortification of not fitting in, which will be familiar even to readers who have never experienced breaded fingers or noodle hair. Lumo is brown-skinned and dark-haired; Saffy is pale-skinned with disheveled reddish-brown hair.

Wild and wacky. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: June 16, 2026

ISBN: 9780063474154

Page Count: 32

Publisher: HarperPop/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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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)