Sure to ease the worries of human campers before their own forays.
Various animals reveal their worries to readers as they pack for summer camp.
Skunk doesn’t like scary stories, and feeling afraid sometimes leads to stinky incidents. Duck never learned to swim. Mole is worried about sports due to poor eyesight (archery, anyone?). And Mouse fears sleeping on the top bunk. Sloth, Rabbit, Snake, Bear, Kangaroo, and Parrot share worries of their own as they each pack their belongings in a suitcase (readers will chuckle at the small, carefully chosen details in these scenes). Once they all arrive at camp, though, they discover a larger problem than their own specific fears: Their new counselor, Cat, is stuck up a tree. By cooperating and each doing jobs that are well suited to them, they can get Cat out of the tree and thereby become a team that can work on their individual fears. For example, under an alligator counselor’s close eye, Duck works on floating, Snake acting as a ring buoy around Duck’s waist. Climo’s cartoon illustrations use format conventions to marvelous effect, imaginary scenes encased in cloudlike bubbles to separate them from reality. The characters are simply drawn with minimal details, but this serves to highlight their expressive faces. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.5-by-19-inch double-page spreads viewed at 23.1% of actual size.)
Sure to ease the worries of human campers before their own forays. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-11098-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
A charming tale of an athlete who may not steal any bases but who will certainly steal readers’ hearts.
Ohtani, pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, teams up with Blank and Liem to tell the story of how his dog, Decoy, threw out a ceremonial first pitch.
It’s a big day! Decoy leaps “off the bed. Then back onto the bed. Then off the bed.” The enthusiastic pup heads outside to practice with his lucky baseball but is quickly distracted by squirrels (“we’ll play later!”), airplanes (“flyin’ high!”), and flowers (“smell ya soon!”). Dog and pitcher then head to the ballpark. In the locker room, Decoy high-paws Shohei’s teammates. It’s nearly time! But as Shohei prepares to warm up, Decoy realizes that he’s forgotten something important: his lucky ball. Without it, there will be “no championships, no parades, and no hot dogs!” Back home he goes, returning just in time. With Shohei at the plate, Decoy runs from the mound to his owner, rolling the ball into Shohei’s mitt for a “Striiiiike!” Related from a dog’s point of view, Ohtani and Blank’s energetic text lends the tale a sense of urgency and suspense. Liem’s illustrations capture the excitement of the first day of baseball season and the joys of locker room camaraderie, as well as Shohei and Decoy’s mutual affection—even when the ball is drenched in slobber, Shohei’s love for his pet shines through, and clearly, Decoy is focused when it matters.
A charming tale of an athlete who may not steal any bases but who will certainly steal readers’ hearts. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9780063460775
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
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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