by Kelly Tills ; illustrated by Max Saladrigas ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 12, 2022
An appealingly offbeat book with a strong message about appreciating unusual thinking.
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A creative youngster solves a field-trip problem in this picture book about valuing what makes a person unique.
A human child doesn’t know exactly why everyone calls them Meow: “Maybe it’s because I get bored easily,” they say, like a cat does. Meow’s snarky, unnamed feline thinks it might be because of Meow’s hat, which has catlike ears. Meow’s teacher, Ms. Snickety, believes that Meow doesn’t listen; “I just listen differently,” Meow explains. On a field trip to see wildlife, the teacher gives each child a banana to offer monkeys, who take every single banana—until Meow, who believes that “sharing is caring,” takes the fruit back in an epic chase and eventually uses a cannon to fire the fruit skyward so everyone can have one. Tills offers a celebration of kids whose brains work differently. Meow is coded as neurodivergent, though it’s never discussed in such terms; the idea that Meow approaches things differently than others do, though, comes through clearly. The author uses short sentences and accessible vocabulary in Meow’s first-person narration, which feel authentic. Saladrigas’ cartoon-style, full-color art perfectly matches the text’s whimsical tone, even incorporating an imagined duck and dinosaur into Meow’s adventure. The iconic yellow cat-hat adds an extra level of expression with changing ear positions.
An appealingly offbeat book with a strong message about appreciating unusual thinking.Pub Date: April 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73670-048-8
Page Count: 44
Publisher: FDI Publishing LLC
Review Posted Online: Feb. 20, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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BOOK REVIEW
by Kelly Tills ; illustrated by GetYourBookIllustrations
by Marjorie Priceman & illustrated by Marjorie Priceman ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 2, 1994
What if the market was closed when you wanted to bake a pie? You could embark for Europe, learn Italian en route, and pick up some semolina wheat in Italy, an egg in France, kurundu bark for cinnamon in Sri Lanka, and an entire cow in England (butter) before coming home via Jamaica (sugar) and Vermont (apples). The expertly designed illustrations in which a dark-haired lass journeys by various means to these interesting places to get her groceries are lovely and lively, and the narrative, too, travels at a spritely pace. The journey is neither quite logical enough to be truly informative nor quite bizarre enough to be satisfyingly silly, while the rich, sweet recipe that's appended will take some adult assistance. Still, fun. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: May 2, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-83705-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1994
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More by Marilyn Singer
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by Marilyn Singer ; illustrated by Marjorie Priceman
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by Elizabeth Rusch ; illustrated by Marjorie Priceman
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by Sonia Manzano ; illustrated by Marjorie Priceman
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...
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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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
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