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JAKE AND AVA

Name: JAKE AND AVA
Author: Jonathan Balcombe
ISBN: 978-0-940719-46-0

A BOY AND A FISH

by Jonathan Balcombe ; illustrated by Rebecca Evans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 19, 2021

A sensitive topic swum with mindful strokes.

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A tale of two youngsters told with alternating human and fish points of view.

Balcombe’s insightful juxtaposition of two youthful experiences wades through an emotional journey of learning and compassion. At each turn, Balcombe’s approach compares the naïve assumptions of a young boy named Jake and a juvenile fish named Ava, finding opportunities to recognize similarities across diverse perspectives as their storylines converge and paths prepare to cross. Jake’s outing with his grandfather begins as his first fishing trip and a meaningful time for learning with an elder. That morning finds the young fish Ava also setting off, to catch insects with her uncle, and learning the techniques and hot spots just as Jake learns from Grandpa. When Jake worries about how the worm may feel, readers get a hint as to what may be on the horizon for Ava. The grandfather and child in the story both appear White, with no noted ethnic or racial identities. Evans’ richly hued watercolors evoke fluid movement and a vibrant natural landscape filled with wildlife. The expressive features bring these lives into focus, building to a sequence with Ava first vividly centered and then pulled into tension with Jake; a picture of a sorrowful Jake gazing at an equally distressed Ava, hanging from the hook across the gutter, says it all. Illustrations and story harmonize well, highlighting vulnerability and the importance of compassion, and an informative endnote quells concern over anthropomorphic storytelling.

A sensitive topic swum with mindful strokes. (Picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-940719-46-0

Page Count: 24

Publisher: Gryphon Press

Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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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)