An eccentric, engaging, and spirited tale that emphasizes health and friendship.
A girl shares animated, encouraging stories to help her pal suffering from a runny nose in this picture book.
When Nicco, who has medium-brown skin and dark hair, feels sick and has a runny nose, his fair-skinned, light-haired friend Piper reassures him that “everyone gets a runny nose,” even trees. She relates silly anecdotes relevant to Nicco’s plight, including that there are runny-nose conditions called “The Tennessee Trickle” and “The Louisiana Leak.” She also tells “the story of the Running of the Noses,” about the time “everyone got sick...The entire tri-state area!” After Piper offers Nicco tissues because “sometimes, you just gotta blow your nose,” he expresses anxiety about his upcoming doctor’s appointment. Piper lends him her toy bird for comfort and says: “You got this!” Nicco feels supported and ostensibly relieved after the physician explains: “You have a bit of a cold. Your body knows how to take care of things, that’s why your nose is running.” She offers Nicco stickers, and he asks for extras for his friends. Piper’s exuberant, sometimes frenetic energy will entertain readers. Despite the quirky elements, Ingels’ story offers scenarios that youngsters will relate to, like Nicco’s fear of the doctor. Ballesteros’ pleasant illustrations feature vibrant colors and fun aspects, such as comic book–style panels and vivid backdrops. Goofy details, like Nicco’s face mask that reads “SNOT SCREEN” and Piper’s charts that show literal running noses, have kid appeal.
An eccentric, engaging, and spirited tale that emphasizes health and friendship.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 9798985174304
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Piper + Enza
Review Posted Online: June 14, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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