A great choice to highlight diverse friendships and believing in yourself—with a fun touch of dinosaurs.
The girl with impossible curls and dinosaurs that hide in them returns in this sequel from team Rose-Vallee and Matsick (Dinosaurs Living in MY HAIR!, 2015) about finding similarities among friends—and being brave when bullies are mean.
Sabrina, now in first grade, still has those uncontrollable curls; three dinosaurs have taken up residence near her bow. Classmates mock the curls of blonde Sabrina and four of her friends: Faye, Gage, Espuardo, and Chanelle. When dinosaurs fall out of Sabrina’s hair at recess, she’s worried her friends will judge, but it turns out they all have dinos of their own. Matsick’s watercolor illustrations of this group of friends are a delightful celebration of diversity. The hair in the group includes red, brown, and black, and the skin tones vary just as much; the children are as distinct as their dinosaurs, and the riot of colors is as vibrant as the kids’ imaginations. When the dinos save Sabrina from a mean bully’s pranks, she and her friends learn a powerful lesson about how to deal with bullies: “You might think that the dinosaurs / were key to our success, / but friends and self-acceptance are / the answer I profess.” Rose-Vallee’s rhyming text flows in perfect rhythm and rhyme, and her vocabulary choices are unique enough to offer a comfortable challenge for Sabrina’s fellow first-grade readers.
A great choice to highlight diverse friendships and believing in yourself—with a fun touch of dinosaurs.Pub Date: March 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9861922-1-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Rosevallee Creations LLC
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet reminder that love is best measured in actions.
Even when well-intended plans go awry, sometimes “I love you” is plastered all over one’s face.
Tiny T. Rex wants to make the perfect valentine for friend Pointy, a stegosaurus. It’s a noble ideal, but perfection is more elusive than the little theropod realized. That’s the premise of this charming board book that succinctly celebrates love, friendship, aspiration, perseverance, limitations, and the notion that it’s the thought that counts—especially when it’s clearly reflected in effort. Like its protagonist, this book is small, but it’s rich in value and works on every level. The artwork has an elegant simplicity that beautifully balances color, personality, and clever detail. A panel of Tiny designing the card in chalk on a blackboard, for example, reveals the scale of the little dino’s intentions: a giant heart, ribbons, smaller hearts dangling from springs, heart-shaped balloons, and fireworks, all much larger than Tiny. The project is clearly a labor of love: Tiny sweats, tugging a bucket of paint—“Pointy’s favorite color!”—but the bucket spills on the artist, not the valentine. Trying to make the card “extra fancy,” Tiny is covered in glitter. Tiny rips, snips, and rerips, trying to make the perfect heart; misspells Pointy; and glues springs and hearts all over everything. When Tiny apologizes for having no valentine for Pointy, Pointy recognizes immediately that the perfect valentine is a friend like Tiny.
A sweet reminder that love is best measured in actions. (Board book. 1-5)Pub Date: Dec. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4521-8489-0
Page Count: 18
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lushly illustrated homage to librarians who provide a welcome and a home away from home for all who enter.
A love letter to libraries.
A Black child, with hair in two puffballs tied with yellow ribbons, a blue dress with a Peter Pan collar, and black patent leather Mary Janes, helps Grandmother with the housework, then, at Grandmother’s suggestion, heads to the library. The child’s eagerness to go, with two books under an arm and one in their hand, suggests that this is a favorite destination. The books’ wordless covers emphasize their endless possibilities. The protagonist’s description of the library makes clear that they are always free to be themselves there—whether they feel happy or sad, whether they’re reading mysteries or recipes, and whether they feel “quick and smart” or “contained and cautious.” Robinson’s vibrant, carefully composed digital illustrations, with bright colors that invite readers in and textures and patterns in every image, effectively capture the protagonist’s passion for reading and appreciation for a space where they feel accepted regardless of disposition. In her author’s note, Giovanni states that she spent summers visiting her grandmother in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she went to the Carnegie Branch of the Lawson McGhee Library. She expresses gratitude for Mrs. Long, the librarian, who often traveled to the main library to get books that Giovanni could not find in their segregated branch. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A lushly illustrated homage to librarians who provide a welcome and a home away from home for all who enter. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-358-38765-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Versify/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
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