A poignant testament to the power of story.
Love—and mermaid magic—help a young girl keep her grandmother’s memories alive.
Alina and Granny live in a lighthouse, which Alina operates; Granny has grown “too old” to do so. At night, over tea, Granny tells Alina tales of mermaids, but her memories are fading and, with them, the stories. Alina wishes she could do something to preserve them. One day a mermaid appears and invites Alina to swim “through swirling, whirling tides, to where your Granny’s stories are, and many more besides.” Alina bravely follows through seaweed forests and past sunken ships until they reach “a city filled with endless light,” where the merfolk keep stories in an ever-flowing well. The mermaid gives Alina some of Granny’s stories, and Alina realizes that the best way to preserve stories is to share them. She pours the stories into the lighthouse lamp, projecting them across the night sky. Granny and Alina are content, knowing that the stories will live on. This gentle narrative is presented in slightly uneven verse, with some distracting word choices (“pirate chiefs” rather than “captains,” for instance). Both Granny’s memory loss and the resolution feel somewhat simplified, though the bond between the two is heartfelt. The graceful, tangerine- and teal-hued images are appealing, and fans of merfolk will enjoy poring over the visuals. Granny and Alina are brown-skinned, and the mermaid is light-skinned; other merfolk are diverse in skin tone.
A poignant testament to the power of story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9781547614349
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2024
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
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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