Slightly pedantic but with ethical situations children will relate to and good kid-to-kid advice.
Real kids can become superheroes.
123 Sunshine St., located in a multiethnic community, is the apartment-building home to Oliver (who’s Black), Mia (with brown skin and long, textured dark hair), Sophie (with olive skin and straight, black hair), and brothers Lucas and Tommy (both White). Oliver is an artist, Mia a skateboarder, Sophie a pet whisperer, and Lucas a jokester. In their collective imagination, they turn those talents into superpowers to save the neighborhood. And Tommy? He seems to be too young to have a supertalent. But when a chain reaction of problems occurs, Tommy’s superpower—kindness—shines. Encouraged by Tommy’s success, the five children create the Sunshine Squad to really help the neighborhood. Backmatter includes a tangentially related story and ways to spread sunshine. Readers can see the Sunshine Squad in action in the simultaneously publishing sequel, Sophie and the Tiny Dognapping. When Sophie steals Mia’s dollhouse dog, she experiences all the emotional and physical reactions of a guilty conscience. Although the Sunshine Squad is busy helping their other neighbors, they have time to give Sophie (and young readers) some good advice. In both books, colorful cartoon illustrations with many close-ups on faces capture the struggle of trying to do what is right. The books kick off the Chicken Soup for the Soul Kids series, their mission clear and their good intentions well executed.
Slightly pedantic but with ethical situations children will relate to and good kid-to-kid advice. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-62354-274-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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