This beautiful, sweet, heartfelt message of love and hope for a child will resonate with many.
Punctuating the narrative with repetitions of “inshallah,” a mother lists the hopes she has for her child in this celebration of unconditional love.
Simple and lyrical verse expresses a parent’s wish of safety, love, happiness, and so much more for her child. “Inshallah you are kind to those most in need. / Inshallah you seek knowledge, reflect, and read.” Saffa Khan’s illustrations complement Hena Khan’s text, bringing to it a sense of movement, change, and liveliness as she ages the child from babe in arms to preschooler. The clear and short sentences deliver a straightforward message of parental love. Using a vibrant, bright, bold palette dominated by orange, blue, and yellow, the illustrations capture this family’s feelings, including such details as Arabic words in the background and an older figure wearing hijab to demonstrate that this is a Muslim family. Family members all have black hair, the brown of their skin varying slightly individual by individual. An author’s note before the title page explains the meaning of the phrase “inshallah,” noting that it is spoken by Muslims worldwide and expresses a “common theme found in other languages and cultures.” This is a lovely addition to the growing collection of diverse books focusing on a family’s unconditional love and addresses the dearth of children’s books inspired by the Quran.
This beautiful, sweet, heartfelt message of love and hope for a child will resonate with many. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4521-8019-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
A tale of intergenerational bonding to be shared by grandparents and grandchildren.
In talk-show host Fallon and illustrator Ordóñez’s latest picture-book collaboration, an elderly pooch waxes rhapsodic about a life well lived.
Observing Papa sitting in his chair watching TV all day, a young pup says, “I’m starting to think…you don’t do ANYTHING.” So Papa proceeds to list his accomplishments, both big and small, mundane and profound. Some are just a result of being older and physically bigger (being tall enough to reach a high shelf and strong enough to open jars); others include winning a race and performing in a band when he was younger. Eventually, the pup realizes that while Papa may have slowed down in his old age, he’s led a full life. The most satisfying thing about Papa’s life now? Watching his grandchild take center stage: “I can say lots of thoughts / but I choose to be quiet. / I’d rather you discover things and then try it.” Fallon’s straightforward text is sweetly upbeat, though it occasionally lacks flow, forcing incongruous situations together to fit the rhyme scheme (“I cook and I mow, / and I once flew a plane. // I play newspaper puzzles because it’s good for my brain”). Featuring uncluttered, colorful backgrounds, Ordóñez’s child-friendly digital art at times takes on sepia tones, evoking the sense of looking back at old photos or memories. Though the creators tread familiar ground, the love between Papa and his little one is palpable.
A tale of intergenerational bonding to be shared by grandparents and grandchildren. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 13, 2025
ISBN: 9781250393975
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
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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
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