A sweet, upbeat guide to cultivating optimism in young children.
Where there’s even a little light, there can still be a lot of hope.
“One little light / cannot light the whole sky… / but it is enough / to begin.” This mantra, or variations of it, is repeated often in this calm, economically worded, softly empowering picture book that offers reassurance to youngsters when they find themselves in darkness or overwhelmed by fear. Darkness, of course, can mean several things—literal darkness, as when children find themselves alone at bedtime after lights are turned out, or darkness of spirit, as when little ones feel downcast, lonely, hopeless, or unsafe. No matter what kind of darkness children are confronting, the book suggests there’s always a glimmer of hope to hold on to if readers remember they have a small spark of light within themselves—sufficient to light the way toward self-confidence and a brighter outlook. This is an uplifting idea, but perhaps it will ring truer and more meaningfully for adults than youngsters. The book might best be shared one-on-one as a laptime read between children and trusted grown-ups, with adults encouraging rich follow-up conversations and explorations of feelings or personal experiences. The delicate, lovely illustrations, rendered in gouache, charcoal, and pastel, feature spirited, racially diverse children. As the text proceeds, more light and colors pervade the pages. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A sweet, upbeat guide to cultivating optimism in young children. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9780063094963
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
Fun times, fond friends, and a festive farmyard setting—little ones will be charmed.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Toad and Little Blue Truck get ready for a hayride.
After the titular vehicle is loaded with hay, Toad is nowhere to be found. “Beep! Beep! Beep! Where are you, Toad?” asks Little Blue Truck. All the barnyard animals look for him. Sheep searches the meadow. Goose and Duck check the pond. Others pitch in, too, but Toad seems to have disappeared…until Hen hears snoring coming from the pile of hay in the back of Little Blue Truck. Although the text’s scansion is imperfect in places (adults may want to pre-read to ensure a smooth read-aloud), the bouncy meter and rhyming text nevertheless capture the energy of the search and the farmyard community’s concern for Toad’s safety, making this a solid storytime choice. Eye-catching illustrations with rich, fully saturated colors balance the right level of detail while still highlighting the animal that is the focus of each verse. By introducing one farm animal at a time, Schertle also helps the youngest readers begin to identify barnyard animals by name and understand their unique farm homes. Traditional animal sounds are part of the text, and listeners will add them to their vocabulary. It all ends with the promised hayride, bringing the tale to a joyous ending.
Fun times, fond friends, and a festive farmyard setting—little ones will be charmed. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2026
ISBN: 9780063436121
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
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BOOK REVIEW
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
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