Vibrant and inspiring.
On the first day of school, a child learns about the different ways we can nurture, grow, and share the spark within.
Each of us has a star deep inside. The stars all vary in color. They can be shy and frightened, sometimes shrinking until they aren’t even shaped like a star. Some stars are bent; sometimes they even break. Sometimes a star “may start to scratch / like an itch in your throat.” Sometimes, it fills your eyes with a twinkle. As a young child starts school, readers see how the star within changes as the youngster experiences different emotions, like being scared or feeling lonely in the cafeteria. Another student reaches out with an overture of friendship, but the protagonist trips and falls—and withdraws, throwing the star in the trash. But, with the help of a sympathetic adult, the child learns how to make the star grow and glow again—and then how to use that light to help others glow. Readers are asked what they will do with their own stars and light. Told in rhyming, lyrical verse, this is a moving reminder of our potential and the kindness we can share with others. Relying on watercolorlike washes of color and arresting imagery, the illustrations propel the story forward and add context to the minimal text. The protagonist has light brown skin and appears Asian; other characters are diverse.
Vibrant and inspiring. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781250851451
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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
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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
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