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PENELOPE WEATHERVANE'S GRUMPY DAY

Name: PENELOPE WEATHERVANE'S GRUMPY DAY
Author: James Serafino
ISBN: 9781250350220

by James Serafino ; illustrated by James Serafino ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 22, 2025

An ultimately sunny exploration of turbulent emotions.

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Today’s forecast: cloudy with a chance of tantrums.

All set to have a picnic, Penelope Weathervane—a purple-eyed, pale-skinned girl with a cumulus cloud atop her head—looks out her window to see clouds gathering. It’s going to be a Grumpy Day. Things get worse by the minute as Penelope Weathervane trips over her shoelaces and discovers she’s out of cereal. Matching the bleak sky above, her once-white cloud hair turns dark gray, and soon rain and lightning take over. As she rages, more clouds surround her, and the tears come in a torrential downpour, causing a terrible flood. The tears subside, but Penelope Weathervane still sulks as a “fog of weariness [rolls] in.” Her black cat reminds her to take deep breaths until calm returns. Penelope Weathervane cleans up the mess, and soon the sun comes out just in time for the picnic. Serafino uses stormy weather as a metaphor for a bad mood—an inspired choice—and the occasional forecast charts (which report her emotions from “cranky” to “grouchy” to “grumpy”) are a fun touch. This is both a delightfully told story and a potential vehicle to help young readers understand big emotions. Soft, watercolorlike illustrations fittingly serve the biggest emotive set piece—Penelope Weathervane’s hair cloud—whether it appears tumultuous or placid.

An ultimately sunny exploration of turbulent emotions. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: July 22, 2025

ISBN: 9781250350220

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

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by Max Greenfield ; illustrated by James Serafino

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THIS LITTLE PIGGY
by James Serafino ; illustrated by James Serafino

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THE HUMBLE PIE

From the Food Group series

by Jory John ; illustrated by Pete Oswald ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 4, 2025

A flavorful call to action sure to spur young introverts.

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In this latest slice in the Food Group series, Humble Pie learns to stand up to a busy friend who’s taking advantage of his pal’s hard work on the sidelines.

Jake the Cake and Humble Pie are good friends. Where Pie is content to toil in the background, Jake happily shines in the spotlight. Alert readers will notice that Pie’s always right there, too, getting A-pluses and skiing expertly just behind—while also doing the support work that keeps every school and social project humming. “Fact: Nobody notices pie when there’s cake nearby!” When the two friends pair up for a science project, things begin well. But when the overcommitted Jake makes excuse after excuse, showing up late or not at all, a panicked Pie realizes that they won’t finish in time. When Jake finally shows up on the night before the project’s due, Pie courageously confronts him. “And for once, I wasn’t going to sugarcoat it.” The friends talk it out and collaborate through the night for the project’s successful presentation in class the next day. John and Oswald’s winning recipe—plentiful puns and delightful visual jokes—has yielded another treat here. The narration does skew didactic as it wraps up: “There’s nothing wrong with having a tough conversation, asking for help, or making sure you’re being treated fairly.” But it’s all good fun, in service of some gentle lessons about social-emotional development.

A flavorful call to action sure to spur young introverts. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025

ISBN: 9780063469730

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S HEALTH & DAILY LIVING

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BIG CHEESE PRESENTS
by Jory John ; illustrated by Pete Oswald

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EVERYTHING'S WRONG!
by Jory John ; illustrated by Erin Kraan

- BOOK REVIEW
THE COOL BEAN MAKES A SPLASH
by Jory John ; illustrated by Pete Oswald

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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)