A distinctive take on the immigrant experience that suffers upon execution.
New to the country, a boy finds solace in friendship.
Jae, a boy cued as Asian, moves into a new apartment with his mother. Bored, lonely, and worried about not knowing words, he meets Rosa, a tan-skinned girl of boundless energy who goes everywhere with her pet parrot, Pollito, on her shoulder. Not only does Rosa’s vivid imagination take Jae back to his home, where the mountains were in view and the streets were full of vendors, she also whisks them to the rainforest of Rosa’s homeland to find llamas and “golden Inca treasures.” She and Pollito sing a song: “When I fly away, my heart stays here.” One morning, Jae wakes to discover that Rosa’s family has moved. “They had to leave quickly. They didn’t have a choice,” Jae’s mother explains to the heartbroken boy. But after a good cry, there is a knock on the door: Two brown-skinned kids stand in the hallway, ready to find a friend. This is a familiar narrative of finding a new home while honoring one’s past home, with the unique angle of addressing the transient nature of immigrants and apartment dwellers in general. However, Campion’s digital illustrations offer little nuance, depicting the children with expressive faces but leaving everything else crudely drawn. Combined with text that flows awkwardly in places, the message loses some impact. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A distinctive take on the immigrant experience that suffers upon execution. (author's note) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-37549-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House Studio
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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