In this tender tale, church-going wins over a relatable father with charm and bite-sized guilt.
Dressed in his Sunday best, Omar goes to church every week with his mother but wishes his dad would come, too.
“Daddy doesn’t go to church,” even as young Omar and his mother prepare to leave home, hoping that he’ll change his mind this time. But Daddy prefers to spend his Sundays “doing much of nothing or a little bit of something.” Paul’s bright, full-colored digital art depicts a Black family that’s nevertheless loving and supportive despite their differences of opinion. As mother and son walk to Ebenezer Church, a community made up of people of varied skin tones greets the duo in the street. In the pews, even as Omar and his best friend, Imani, make funny faces at one another, the absence of Omar’s father is felt. Back at home, Omar’s father has prepared lunch and dinner with his free time, but from Omar’s detailed and earnest narration, it’s clear that he and his mom share a lingering dream of their whole family attending a Sunday service together. Still, “sometimes worship isn’t in a building,” Mom assures son and readers alike. Daddy eventually shows up to church in the suit and tie laid out for him by his loved ones, met by a big, exuberant smile from little Omar—a moment that may read as passive aggressive to some but that will earn smiles from others, particularly those who have found themselves in similar situations.
In this tender tale, church-going wins over a relatable father with charm and bite-sized guilt. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781534113336
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
A tale of mutual adoration that hits a sweet note.
Little Honey Bunny Funnybunny loves baseball almost as much as she loves her big brother P.J.—though it’s a close-run thing.
Readers familiar with the pranks P.J. plays on his younger sibling in older episodes of the series (most illustrated by Roger Bollen) will be amused—and perhaps a little confused—to see him in the role of perfect big brother after meeting his swaddled little sister for the first time in mama’s lap. But here, along with being a constant companion and “always happy to see her,” he cements his heroic status in her eyes by hitting a home run for his baseball team and then patiently teaching her how to play T-ball. After carefully coaching her and leading her through warm-up exercises, he even sits in the stands, loudly cheering her on as she scores the winning run in her own very first game. “‘You are the best brother a bunny could ever have!’” she burbles. This tale’s a tad blander compared with others centered on P.J. and his sister, but it’s undeniably cheery, with text well structured for burgeoning readers. The all-smiles animal cast in Bowers’ cartoon art features a large and diversely hued family of bunnies sporting immense floppy ears as well as a multispecies crowd of furry onlookers equally varied of color, with one spectator in a wheelchair.
A tale of mutual adoration that hits a sweet note. (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9798217032464
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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