Dreamy illustrations and enchanting prose make for an uplifting, poignant tale of growing up and letting go.
A young boy sets out to solve the mysteries of life and discovers something more valuable than he could ever have imagined in Dumiere’s children’s fable.
An unnamed boy stands on a beach, contemplating the confusion of the world while swirling his finger on a spiral shell. That simple movement gets him swept up by the Bully Wind, who tells him that the only one who can reveal life’s mysteries is the elusive Fearful Gyre. So, the boy sets sail through the air on an imaginary ship he names The Albatross in search of answers. Throughout his journey, he encounters dangers (The Deep attempts to pull him under the ocean’s waters by bringing up sad, long-forgotten memories), frustrations (the bickering, three-headed Wee Tortoise-Shaped Cloud), and wisdom (the Mother Sun, Moon, and stars, who suggest that perhaps the Gyre is actually Death). When the boy finally finds the Fearful Gyre, he sees “Circles within Circles, Wheels within Wheels…the Birth and Death of Worlds.” These cosmic visions are accompanied by a mysterious voice urging him to “let go your self.” The boy does just that and finds himself back on Earth with newfound wisdom. Dumiere’s charming black-and-white sketches are just as fanciful as the story’s action, and the layout of the words on the page sometimes echoes the action (a descending “down and down,” for example). As uplifting as it is poignant, the text is also great fun to read aloud (“They plunge ahead as if by Bluster and Brass and the breeze at their back they might sail forever”). It is a simple childhood tale with a message of cosmic birth and rebirth that will echo well into adulthood, much like Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince (1943). Poetic in its execution and profound in its message, Dumiere’s odyssey begs to be read over and over again to uncover the layers of hidden meaning that lie just below the surface.
Dreamy illustrations and enchanting prose make for an uplifting, poignant tale of growing up and letting go.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 117
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings.
The Crayons head back to class in this latest series entry.
Daywalt’s expository text lays out the basics as various Crayons wave goodbye to the beach, choose a first-day outfit, greet old friends, and make new ones. As in previous outings, the perennially droll illustrations and hand-lettered Crayon-speak drive the humor. The ever wrapperless Peach, opining, “What am I going to wear?” surveys three options: top hat and tails, a chef’s toque and apron, and a Santa suit. New friends Chunky Toddler Crayon (who’s missing a bite-sized bit of their blue point) and Husky Toddler Crayon speculate excitedly on their common last name: “I wonder if we’re related!” White Crayon, all but disappearing against the page’s copious white space, sits cross-legged reading a copy of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man. And Yellow and Orange, notable for their previous existential argument about the color of the sun, find agreement in science class: Jupiter, clearly, is yellow AND orange. Everybody’s excited about art class—“Even if they make a mess. Actually…ESPECIALLY if they make a mess!” Here, a spread of crayoned doodles of butterflies, hearts, and stars is followed by one with fulsome scribbles. Fans of previous outings will spot cameos from Glow in the Dark and yellow-caped Esteban (the Crayon formerly known as Pea Green). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 9780593621110
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
