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ELLIOT

Name: ELLIOT
Author: Julie Pearson
ISBN: 978-1-927485-85-9

by Julie Pearson ; illustrated by Manon Gauthier ; translated by Erin Woods ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 4, 2016

A needed but problematic offering.

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A heartfelt picture book attempts to address the stories of foster children.

The cast of characters is made up of anthropomorphic rabbits rendered in flat, mixed-media collage, and the protagonist, Elliot, is “a playful little boy who was full of life.” He’s introduced in a warm embrace with his parents, who “loved him very much.” Over two page turns, readers see Elliot alone, crying, then yelling, then misbehaving, and the text tells them that his parents don’t understand, don’t know what to do, and don’t know how to react. They seek help, and “Thomas came to visit.” He’s presumably a social worker, introduced in an alarming juxtaposition of a benign illustration of everyone seated at a table with text that reads, “He said he would take Elliot to stay with another family until his parents learned how to take better care of him.” Elliot’s life changes drastically. He moves back and forth between (good) foster homes and his parents, finally ending up in an adoptive family. Both text and art are careful to depict his conflicted, difficult feelings, but they take far less care in depictions of the characters and their circumstances. The story is simply too restrained in depicting the crises that precipitate Elliot’s placement into foster care, and they therefore risk minimizing the tragedy—and even spiking anxiety—as they attempt to offer hope.

A needed but problematic offering. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: April 4, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-927485-85-9

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Pajama Press

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016

Categories:

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)