A poignant tale of belonging—joyful and out loud.
A child learns the kaleidoscopic history behind an annual queer Friendsgiving celebration.
As preparations unfold, each family member offers a different version of how the gathering began. Great-Uncle Billy believes he started it; he recalls the secret codes queer people used (for instance, “Are you a friend of Dorothy?”) to find safety and connection. Miss Mona insists it started when her car broke down in 1992, and she’s been bringing sweet potatoes ever since. Grandma Jane and Nana Rose remember late nights of activism, while Elliot and Ash trace the tradition to a warm year spent feeding queer youth who had nowhere else to go for the holiday. All the while, the young, Black-presenting narrator moves through the bustling home snapping photographs, listening to stories, and delighting in the mystery of how this racially diverse, gender expansive, and queerly devoted found family first came together. McClintick deftly tugs at the interwoven yarns of queer history, intergenerational storytelling, and collective heritage without unraveling into lesson-book boredom. References to coded queer language, the Lavender Menace protests, ballroom culture, and more emerge naturally through conversation, while an author’s note provides more detailed context for curious readers. Morris’ textured illustrations and scrapbooklike spreads not only help ground this Friendsgiving tradition in living communal memory but, like the text, they also show readers that origins (especially queer ones) can be shared touchstones while still being fluid and self-determined.
A poignant tale of belonging—joyful and out loud. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9781536231182
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026
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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