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LION NEEDS A HAIRCUT

Name: LION NEEDS A HAIRCUT
Author: Hyewon Yum
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4224-8

by Hyewon Yum ; illustrated by Hyewon Yum ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 5, 2020

This dad needs to learn to pick his battles and control his anger.

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A cub uses some reverse psychology on his father…but gets a haircut anyway.

From the first spread, what will strike most readers is the father lion’s seemingly over-the-top anger directed at his cub. The two are at dinner, dad’s fist coming down so hard on the tabletop that his plate tilts and his drink sloshes: “You need a haircut.” Unperturbed, the cub slurps up the spaghetti. “No, I don’t.” Dad’s anger continues on the next page, where the duo shares the couch. While the lion’s words try to be reassuring, his scowl is not. On the third spread, dad finally tries to get at the heart of the matter and looks pleasant while shampooing the cub’s hair and reassuring the child that there’s nothing to be scared of. But things devolve again to a (literal) roaring match and, ultimately, the cub’s sad admission: “I just wanted my hair to look like yours.” From there, the cub uses the same tactics his father did to convince him that he also needs a trim (a reference to the lion’s mane as mustache and beard may puzzle literal-minded readers). Troublingly, “Are you scared?” is used tauntingly, and the interaction reinforces the notion that fear and worry are shameful. But most discomfiting is the anger that visibly radiates from the father in too many of the colored-pencil spreads.

This dad needs to learn to pick his battles and control his anger. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: May 5, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-4197-4224-8

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Abrams

Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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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)