OLLIE ON STAGE

Name: OLLIE ON STAGE
Author: Keith Brockett
ISBN: 978-1-58536-401-5

by Keith Brockett ; illustrated by Ashley King ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2019

A slapstick celebration of the process of discovering and honoring what makes us and our friends unique—in a decidedly...

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Tall, round-bellied Ollie the ogre’s unsuccessful attempts to cultivate a talent lead him to doubt his ability to participate in the local talent show.

Rhyming text is accompanied by colorful, cartoonish illustrations that depict a world in which humans, animals, and folkloric creatures appear to live in harmony. The characters’ expressive faces anchor the uncertainty and dismay that Ollie’s friends experience as they try (and fail) to teach him their respective special skills. It soon appears evident that Ollie’s ogreish strength (pun intended) may in fact be his weakness, but an unexpected turn of events demonstrates how everyone in a community has something important to offer. The story itself treads a well-worn path, however, and the generic characters are never fully developed. Readers may be entertained by Ollie’s dismal training sessions and later success and fame, yet the origins or relevance of his fervent desire to be onstage at all remain frustratingly unanswered throughout the book. Ollie’s face and hands are furless while the rest of his body is covered in a turquoise pelt; while humans of various skin tones occupy this world, the humanoid characters, like Ollie, present white.

A slapstick celebration of the process of discovering and honoring what makes us and our friends unique—in a decidedly less-than-unique vehicle . (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 15, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-58536-401-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press

Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS | CHILDREN'S PARANORMAL & SUPERNATURAL

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER'S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
by Keith Brockett ; illustrated by Joseph Cowman

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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)