Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • Kirkus Reviews'
    Best Books Of 2023

Next book

SWEET FIRE

A vibrant book with a good lesson for young leaders.

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • Kirkus Reviews'
    Best Books Of 2023

A girl is praised for passion and kindness in Mitchell’s celebratory picture book.

Two parents lovingly welcome a newborn, nicknamed Sweet Fire, proclaiming, “You came into the world with a song to sing, / Work to do and a message to bring.” As the child grows, the passion she has for life is clear: This girl will follow her own path even if others equate that passion and fire to being a “diva.” Sweet Fire centers herself in serving her community, breaking through unfair barriers, telling the truth (even when it’s not easy), and gently caring for others. She shares that light, and love, with everyone around her—sharing it, on a final two-page spread, with other children around the world. Mitchell’s poem features clean rhymes and sometimes syncopated rhythms that keep the poetry fresh. Repeated phrases invite lap readers to chime in. The focus on Sweet Fire’s virtues makes this feel like a tribute to children who’ve been told too often to cover up who they are. Takashi’s beautiful, full-color paintings show Sweet Fire at several different ages, creating a continuity of growth and strength. Sweet Fire and her parents are depicted as Black, and the diverse community is portrayed with a range of skin tones.

A vibrant book with a good lesson for young leaders.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 9798218055189

Page Count: -

Publisher: FreedomSong Press

Review Posted Online: May 15, 2023

Next book

ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

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

Next book

THE CRAYONS' CHRISTMAS

From the Creative Creature Catcher series

Haphazard but jolly enough for one outing; it probably won’t last for more.

A flurry of mail addressed to Duncan’s crayons ushers in the Christmas season in this novelty spinoff of the bestselling The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) and The Day the Crayons Came Home (2015).

Actual cards and letters are tucked into envelopelike pouches pasted to the pages; these are joined in some cases by other ephemera for a package that is likely to invite sudden, intense play followed by loss and/or damage that will render the book a disappointment to reread. That’s probably OK, as in contrast to the clever story that kicked this small series off, this outing has a hastily composed feel that lacks cohesion. The first letter is addressed to Peach from Mom and includes a paper doll of the “naked” (de-wrappered) crayon along with a selection of tabbed changes of clothing that includes a top hat and tails and a bikini top and bottom. Peach’s implied gender fluidity does not mitigate the unfortunate association of peach with skin color established in the first book. The sense of narrative improvisation is cemented with an early page turn that takes the crayons from outdoors snow play to “Feeling…suddenly very Christmas-y, the crayons headed inside.” Readers can unpack a box of punch-out decorations; a recipe for gluten-free Christmas cookies that begins “go to store and buy gluten-free cookies”; a punch-out dreidel (turns out Grey is Jewish); a board game (“six-sided die” not included); and a map of Esteban (aka Pea Green) and Neon Red’s travels with Santa.

Haphazard but jolly enough for one outing; it probably won’t last for more. (Novelty. 4-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-525-51574-6

Page Count: 52

Publisher: Penguin Workshop

Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019

Close Quickview