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NOT YETI

Name: NOT YETI
Author: Kelly DiPucchio
ISBN: 978-0-593-11407-0

by Kelly DiPucchio ; illustrated by Claire Keane ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 18, 2021

This story makes “Virtue is its own reward” seem original and kind of a blast.

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This may not be the best picture book for Billy Joel or John Milton.

Milton was accused of belonging to the devil’s party because Satan gets all the best scenes in Paradise Lost. Joel has famously sung that “Only the Good Die Young.” But the goody-two-shoes yeti in this story is much more fun than all the other monsters. Yeti “crochets sweaters for penguins,” the text informs readers. He cheers on newborn sea turtles as they’re scuttling toward the ocean. He tells knock-knock jokes to the trees (“Yew who?”). The nastier monsters kick sand and TP the babysitter, which isn’t terribly original. Even when Yeti brings them warm banana bread, they’re inclined to stuff it up their nostrils. OK, that does look fun, if not very tasty. Yeti’s community service is so entertaining that the jokes in the text feel almost redundant, which is good, because they’re very low-key. When Yeti is described as “abominable,” the reference is so subtle that some readers may not get it till their second or third trip through the book. The pictures are also low-key, in the sense that the monsters come in pastel colors. They look almost dashed-off, but the character designs are imaginative enough that one monster has 16 ears. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 80.8% of actual size.)

This story makes “Virtue is its own reward” seem original and kind of a blast. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: May 18, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-11407-0

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021

Categories:

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

- BOOK REVIEW
MOUSE & GIRAFFE
by Kelly DiPucchio ; illustrated by Jen Corace

- BOOK REVIEW
BECOMING CHARLEY
by Kelly DiPucchio ; illustrated by Loveis Wise

- BOOK REVIEW
OONA IN THE ARCTIC
by Kelly DiPucchio ; illustrated by Raissa Figueroa

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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)

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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THE BIG CHEESE

From the Food Group series

by Jory John ; illustrated by Pete Oswald ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 2023

From curds to riches, from meltdown to uplift—this multicourse romp delivers.

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A winning wheel of cheddar with braggadocio to match narrates a tale of comeuppance and redemption.

From humble beginnings among kitchen curds living “quiet lives of pasteurization,” the Big Cheese longs to be the best and builds success and renown based on proven skills and dependable results: “I stuck to the things I was good at.” When newcomer Wedge moves to the village of Curds-on-Whey, the Cheese’s star status wobbles and falls. Turns out that quiet, modest Wedge is also multitalented. At the annual Cheese-cathlon, Wedge bests six-time winner Cheese in every event, from the footrace and chess to hat making and bread buttering. A disappointed Cheese throws a full-blown tantrum before arriving at a moment of truth: Self-calming, conscious breathing permits deep relief that losing—even badly—does not result in disaster. A debrief with Wedge “that wasn’t all about me” leads to further realizations: Losing builds empathy for others; obsession with winning obscures “the joy of participating.” The chastened cheddar learns to reserve bragging for lifting up friends, because anyone can be the Big Cheese. More didactic and less pun-rich than previous entries in the Food Group series, this outing nevertheless couples a cheerful refrain with pithy life lessons that hit home. Oswald’s detailed, comical illustrations continue to provide laughs, including a spot with Cheese onstage doing a “CHED” talk.

From curds to riches, from meltdown to uplift—this multicourse romp delivers. (Picture book. 4-8)