A quirky, compassionate story about finding wisdom in unlikely places.
A frog learns valuable lessons in Allen’s picture book.
Butch, a large, ravenous bullfrog, luxuriates daily on a lily pad, slurping up flies. He meets a mayfly who begs Butch not to eat him. The mayfly explains that his life span is merely one day. Butch is shocked! No fly has ever spoken to him before. And the amphibian loses his appetite after learning that the poor creature doesn’t even get to eat on its sole day on Earth. He kindly asks his new pal if he can make his day better somehow. The insect says he’d like help crossing the pond to get to the meadow without being eaten. Butch accompanies the fly, and on the way, the two swap stories. When they encounter a hungry-looking frog, Butch carries the mayfly in his mouth until the threat passes. Finally, they part ways. Butch, grateful for the fresh outlook on life, heeds the fly’s wise words: “Live each day as if it’s your last, for you may only have one day!” Although the word count here is atypically high for the genre, the author earnestly emphasizes appreciating new perspectives and learning from others. The book would be a nice pick as a read-aloud, enabling discussions about personal differences. Adam’s charming painted illustrations aptly accompany the text. Young readers will enjoy the detailed elements such as the expressive characters and various plants and colorful insects flying about. Pond life is well depicted, particularly the swirling green-and-blue water.
A quirky, compassionate story about finding wisdom in unlikely places.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-910903-44-5
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2021
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
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Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees.
After Duncan finds his crayons gone—yet again—letters arrive, detailing their adventures in friendship.
Eleven crayons send missives from their chosen spots throughout Duncan’s home (and one from his classroom). Red enjoys the thrill of extinguishing “pretend fires” with Duncan’s toy firetruck. White, so often dismissed as invisible, finds a new calling subbing in for the missing queen on the black-and-white chessboard. “Now everyone ALWAYS SEES ME!…(Well, half the time!)” Pink’s living the dream as a pastry chef helming the Breezy Bake Oven, “baking everything from little cupcakes…to…OTHER little cupcakes!” Teal, who’s hitched a ride to school in Duncan’s backpack, meets the crayons in the boy’s desk and writes, “Guess what? I HAVE A TWIN! How come you never told me?” Duncan wants to see his crayons and “meet their new friends.” A culminating dinner party assembles the crayons and their many guests: a table tennis ball, dog biscuits, a well-loved teddy bear, and more. The premise—personified crayons, away and back again—is well-trammeled territory by now, after over a dozen books and spinoffs, and Jeffers once more delivers his signature cartooning and hand-lettering. Though the pages lack the laugh-out-loud sight gags and side-splittingly funny asides of previous outings, readers—especially fans of the crayons’ previous outings—will enjoy checking in on their pals.
Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593622360
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
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