Those with limited budgets should opt for more-creative, less-contrived books that address this premise.
Patience is not Phoebe’s strong suit.
Waiting until tomorrow for pancakes, ice cream, and a school party makes her grumpy. “Grown-ups always said tomorrow when they didn’t want to do something now.” This common frustration is the premise of this well-meaning but essentially bland picture book. Simple ink-outlined illustrations colored in Adobe Illustrator in muted shades of blue, orange, purple, and brown are designed in a retro style but feel incomplete. They do little to add interest or depth to the story. Phoebe has brown skin and puffy, brown hair, and her classmates are shown as a diverse mix. A brown-skinned, curly-haired child plays a drum, a red-haired, pale-skinned girl with glasses is assigned a maraca, and a light-skinned blonde girl plays a xylophone in her wheelchair. (Curiously, she does not have a mallet.) One of the teachers is pale; the other is light brown. After being told to wait until tomorrow all day long and falling into a snit, Phoebe melts down at her brown-skinned Grammy’s. Of course, Grammy offers, and Phoebe quickly accepts, the inevitable and simplistic resolution to the problem: a “secret ingredient to make [tomorrows] into todays” that is anticlimactically revealed to be a good night’s sleep. No doubt, Phoebe will find fans, as Zwillich is the creator of TV and internet video content in both Canada and the U.S.
Those with limited budgets should opt for more-creative, less-contrived books that address this premise. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-77147-172-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads.
Emma deals with jitters before playing the guitar in the school talent show.
Pop musician Kevin Jonas and his wife, Danielle, put performance at the center of their picture-book debut. When Emma is intimidated by her very talented friends, the encouragement of her younger sister, Bella, and the support of her family help her to shine her own light. The story is straightforward and the moral familiar: Draw strength from your family and within to overcome your fears. Employing the performance-anxiety trope that’s been written many times over, the book plods along predictably—there’s nothing really new or surprising here. Dawson’s full-color digital illustrations center a White-presenting family along with Emma’s three friends of color: Jamila has tanned skin and wears a hijab; Wendy has dark brown skin and Afro puffs; and Luis has medium brown skin. Emma’s expressive eyes and face are the real draw of the artwork—from worry to embarrassment to joy, it’s clear what she’s feeling. A standout double-page spread depicts Emma’s talent show performance, with a rainbow swirl of music erupting from an amp and Emma rocking a glam outfit and electric guitar. Overall, the book reads pretty plainly, buoyed largely by the artwork. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35207-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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