A message of empathy and inclusion delivered with appealing simplicity and charming visual appeal.
A little girl learns what it really means to be a princess in Zhang’s picture book.
More than anything, little Sophie wants to be a princess; if only she had one of those fancy princess dresses sold at a neighborhood shop. Her hardworking, sympathetic mom, who makes dumplings for her “Mama Zhao’s Jiaozi” food truck, says that paying “for the roof over [their] heads” has to be the priority. It doesn’t help that Sophie’s classmates, Francesca and Mei, come to school wearing their beautiful new princess dresses and make fun of Sophie’s lunchtime dumplings and her friend Olek’s pierogies, comparing them to Francesca’s Italian restaurant raviolis and Mei’s decorative baos. Zhang’s vibrant and warmhearted debut children’s picture book marks the launch of her Are YOU series celebrating “diversity through our shared humanity” (the exuberant, full-color illustrations by Tran depict characters of different racial and ethnic groups). Sophie’s princess dream is realized against a backdrop of simple multicultural references: She realizes that she and her classmates are “all eating the same thing: dough wrapped around a filling”; on “Melting Pot Street,” she sets up a boba stand between her mother’s jiaozi truck and fruit vendor Abuelita Lola’s cart to earn money to buy her own princess dress. But it’s something Sophie does out of the kindness of her heart, Abuelita Lola tells her, that makes her “a true princess.”
A message of empathy and inclusion delivered with appealing simplicity and charming visual appeal.Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781967308002
Page Count: 38
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Sure to have little ones giggling.
Jacques is a hedgehog with a big secret: “I wear real, bona fide underwear.”
Our narrator received a mysterious package one day; an illustration shows a pair of underwear tied to a balloon with a note “from the Universe” floating down into Jacques’ burrow. Hedgehogs don’t wear underwear, however. Will Jacques be shunned? Jacques worries but comes to a decision: “I have to wear them. When I do I feel special.” Determined, Jacques, who’s been invited to a party, makes a dramatic entrance, with undies in hand. Jacques’ declaration (“I WEAR UNDERWEAR”) is met with remarks of dismay, before another hedgehog opens up about similar fears and shows off a pair of cowboy boots. More hedgehogs introduce themselves with their own confessions. The story ends with Jacques unveiling a painting of the underwear in a gallery filled with hedgehogs wearing all sorts of attire. Though the book is simple in plot, characters, and setting, it wins in its balance of bathroom humor, dramatic storytelling, and celebrations of individual expression. French words are peppered throughout, adding to the fun without detracting from the story for those unfamiliar with the language. The cartoonish illustrations brim with fun; Valdez relies heavily on geometric shapes (triangle noses for the hedgehogs; huge circles for their eyes). Details such as speech bubbles and recurring turtle and snake characters contribute to the outlandish humor.
Sure to have little ones giggling. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: April 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781250814388
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it.
A succession of animal dads do their best to teach their young to say “Dada” in this picture-book vehicle for Fallon.
A grumpy bull says, “DADA!”; his calf moos back. A sad-looking ram insists, “DADA!”; his lamb baas back. A duck, a bee, a dog, a rabbit, a cat, a mouse, a donkey, a pig, a frog, a rooster, and a horse all fail similarly, spread by spread. A final two-spread sequence finds all of the animals arrayed across the pages, dads on the verso and children on the recto. All the text prior to this point has been either iterations of “Dada” or animal sounds in dialogue bubbles; here, narrative text states, “Now everybody get in line, let’s say it together one more time….” Upon the turn of the page, the animal dads gaze round-eyed as their young across the gutter all cry, “DADA!” (except the duckling, who says, “quack”). Ordóñez's illustrations have a bland, digital look, compositions hardly varying with the characters, although the pastel-colored backgrounds change. The punch line fails from a design standpoint, as the sudden, single-bubble chorus of “DADA” appears to be emanating from background features rather than the baby animals’ mouths (only some of which, on close inspection, appear to be open). It also fails to be funny.
Plotless and pointless, the book clearly exists only because its celebrity author wrote it. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-00934-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
