A beautiful tale of family, love for a lost homeland, and remembrance.
Three siblings of Palestinian descent listen to their father’s bedtime story about a homeland they’ve never seen.
Their father tells them how, as a child, he visited his grandparents Teta Maria and Sido Abu Michel in the Old City of Jerusalem. He began his day by eating ka’ak, his favorite breakfast, and afterward he went to the family cafe with his Sido. Moushabeck vividly describes the streets of East Jerusalem—the many languages spoken, the “colorful vendors” selling “everything from olive oil soap with rose water and heaping bags of za’atar to gold jewelry and embroidered textiles,” and “the chanting of the muazzin’s call to prayer mixed with the ringing of church bells.” The day ends with Sido releasing the family’s pigeons and telling the young boy they won’t fly off—“This is their home.” The story turns poignant as readers learn this was the last time the children’s father saw Palestine, yet the siblings are filled with hope at the possibility of a return one day. Madooh’s loose, earth-toned illustrations pair well with Moushabeck’s words and capture both the characters’ joy and sadness. The author doesn’t offer much context as to why the family cannot return to their homeland—caregivers or educators may need to fill in some gaps. Still, it’s a stirring tale with details that evoke the senses. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A beautiful tale of family, love for a lost homeland, and remembrance. (glossary of Arabic words) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-79720-205-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As insubstantial as hot air.
A diverse cast of children first makes a fleet of hot air balloons and then takes to the sky in them.
Lifestyle maven Gaines uses this activity as a platform to celebrate diversity in learning and working styles. Some people like to work together; others prefer a solo process. Some take pains to plan extensively; others know exactly what they want and jump right in. Some apply science; others demonstrate artistic prowess. But “see how beautiful it can be when / our differences share the same sky?” Double-page spreads leading up to this moment of liftoff are laid out such that rhyming abcb quatrains typically contain one or two opposing concepts: “Some of us are teachers / and share what we know. / But all of us are learners. / Together is how we grow!” In the accompanying illustration, a bespectacled, Asian-presenting child at a blackboard lectures the other children on “balloon safety.” Gaines’ text has the ring of sincerity, but the sentiment is hardly an original one, and her verse frequently sacrifices scansion for rhyme. Sometimes it abandons both: “We may not look / or work or think the same, / but we all have an / important part to play.” Swaney’s delicate, pastel-hued illustrations do little to expand on the text, but they are pretty. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.2-by-18.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 70.7% of actual size.)
As insubstantial as hot air. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4003-1423-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tommy Nelson
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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