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LOOK OUT! IT'S A DRAGON!

Name: LOOK OUT! IT'S A DRAGON!
Author: Jonny Lambert
ISBN: 978-1-68010-081-5

by Jonny Lambert ; illustrated by Jonny Lambert ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2018

A simple story with sophisticated illustrations that won’t fly over the heads of young readers.

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Sometimes dragons get too much respect.

Sapphire the dragon isn’t one for crushing castles, torching forests, or swiping damsels. She isn’t happy with her rocky roost either, so she flies off to discover more amenable climes. She does, in a meadow sweet with flowers and grasses and copses of birch. But she scares the dickens out of the meadow dwellers, all except the mouse she inadvertently lands upon, who in no short order tells the dragon she can’t stay. Sapphire tries to explain that she is a friendly dragon when a series of muddles makes her look like a bad old dragon after all, and she is banished from the meadow. Whereupon a flight of other, truly ill-meaning dragons descends on the meadow and torches the place before Sapphire returns to chase them off. The meadow now cinders, Sapphire, with the foxes, squirrels, rabbits, and mice riding on her back, flies off to find a new home. There’s little new here, but the artwork conveying the story is a natty collection of colors, collage, and brush strokes to keep the eye busy and build sympathy for Sapphire. Lambert isolates his characters against generous white space, which heightens the effectiveness of body language and interactions.

A simple story with sophisticated illustrations that won’t fly over the heads of young readers. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: March 1, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-68010-081-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Tiger Tales

Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S DRAGONS & MYTHICAL CREATURES | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
LIGHT THE SKY, FIREFLY
by Sheri Mabry Bestor ; illustrated by Jonny Lambert

- BOOK REVIEW
NOW YOU SEE ME, NOW YOU DON'T
by Patricia Hegarty ; illustrated by Jonny Lambert

- BOOK REVIEW
SOAR HIGH, DRAGONFLY
by Sheri Mabry Bestor ; illustrated by Jonny Lambert

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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)

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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THE BIG CHEESE

From the Food Group series

by Jory John ; illustrated by Pete Oswald ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 2023

From curds to riches, from meltdown to uplift—this multicourse romp delivers.

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A winning wheel of cheddar with braggadocio to match narrates a tale of comeuppance and redemption.

From humble beginnings among kitchen curds living “quiet lives of pasteurization,” the Big Cheese longs to be the best and builds success and renown based on proven skills and dependable results: “I stuck to the things I was good at.” When newcomer Wedge moves to the village of Curds-on-Whey, the Cheese’s star status wobbles and falls. Turns out that quiet, modest Wedge is also multitalented. At the annual Cheese-cathlon, Wedge bests six-time winner Cheese in every event, from the footrace and chess to hat making and bread buttering. A disappointed Cheese throws a full-blown tantrum before arriving at a moment of truth: Self-calming, conscious breathing permits deep relief that losing—even badly—does not result in disaster. A debrief with Wedge “that wasn’t all about me” leads to further realizations: Losing builds empathy for others; obsession with winning obscures “the joy of participating.” The chastened cheddar learns to reserve bragging for lifting up friends, because anyone can be the Big Cheese. More didactic and less pun-rich than previous entries in the Food Group series, this outing nevertheless couples a cheerful refrain with pithy life lessons that hit home. Oswald’s detailed, comical illustrations continue to provide laughs, including a spot with Cheese onstage doing a “CHED” talk.

From curds to riches, from meltdown to uplift—this multicourse romp delivers. (Picture book. 4-8)