A glowing window into grieving that makes room for sorrow and joy to coexist.
A child mourns while taking in the marvels of the forest and ocean.
“I wish you were here,” begins this tender story. “Together we’d smell the damp mushrooms and moss deep inside these woods.” Narrated by a child with light brown skin and chestnut hair, the tale winds through a shining meadow, a temperate rainforest, and a pebbly shoreline. Stinson focuses on the young protagonist’s sensory experiences of the land and water all around, encouraging mindfulness and connection to the present moment: tasting “the ocean salt in the breeze,” seeing “the light poking through the clouds,” hearing “pebbles saying clickety-clack,” and feeling “the tickle of the sea-foam swish up between our toes.” Teeming with the flora and fauna of the Pacific Northwest, where illustrator McKibbin (Ojibwe) lives, the vivid, full-bleed digital images bring life to a text filled with heartache and reverence for nature. Stinson’s narrator doesn’t go into detail about the missing loved one, allowing readers to see their own experiences reflected in the story; this could be a tale about someone who’s moved away, died, or is otherwise no longer a part of everyday life. Radiant images and a spacious narrative provide adults with an uplifting space to discuss heavy emotions with young ones.
A glowing window into grieving that makes room for sorrow and joy to coexist. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 13, 2025
ISBN: 9781771649926
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Greystone Kids
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A flavorful call to action sure to spur young introverts.
In this latest slice in the Food Group series, Humble Pie learns to stand up to a busy friend who’s taking advantage of his pal’s hard work on the sidelines.
Jake the Cake and Humble Pie are good friends. Where Pie is content to toil in the background, Jake happily shines in the spotlight. Alert readers will notice that Pie’s always right there, too, getting A-pluses and skiing expertly just behind—while also doing the support work that keeps every school and social project humming. “Fact: Nobody notices pie when there’s cake nearby!” When the two friends pair up for a science project, things begin well. But when the overcommitted Jake makes excuse after excuse, showing up late or not at all, a panicked Pie realizes that they won’t finish in time. When Jake finally shows up on the night before the project’s due, Pie courageously confronts him. “And for once, I wasn’t going to sugarcoat it.” The friends talk it out and collaborate through the night for the project’s successful presentation in class the next day. John and Oswald’s winning recipe—plentiful puns and delightful visual jokes—has yielded another treat here. The narration does skew didactic as it wraps up: “There’s nothing wrong with having a tough conversation, asking for help, or making sure you’re being treated fairly.” But it’s all good fun, in service of some gentle lessons about social-emotional development.
A flavorful call to action sure to spur young introverts. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780063469730
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
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