A useful book for elementary schoolers still struggling with big emotions.
A boy helps his nervous friend get ready for summer camp in this illustrated children’sbook about coping with difficult feelings.
Best friends Milo and Bobby always meet at the same big tree during their walks to school. One day, Milo seems upset. When he confesses to Bobby that he’s excited but scared about going to summer camp, Bobby assures him he’ll be fine. Milo’s feelings are hurt: “Milo couldn’t believe Bobby didn’t understand what a big deal this was!” With his emotions all mixed up, Milo later avoids their special tree, and Bobby wonders what he should do. Finally, he has a memory of his own first day of camp; he’d been so excited to go, but suddenly, it all felt too “big,”and he was worried he would hate it. A camp counselor’s wisdom helped him. Bobby races to catch up with Milo and gives him advice involving the word and. He explains that it’s okay to feel a lot of emotions at once, and as soon as Bobby realizes he can be both nervous andexcited at the same time, he has an easier time dealing with his big feelings. Monnerat, a veteran teacher, includes a co-author’s note to describe how the notion of andcan be freeing for children. She and Chalkley use accessible language throughout that never comes across as preachy; instead, the story feels like a conversation with a friend. The dialogue, in word bubbles that follow the characters across pages, is likely to help reluctant readers follow the conversation, and large images of emotion-related terms, sometimes in a jumble, aptly depict the sense of feelings in conflict. Some of Hopkins’ full-color cartoon illustrations seem unpolished, especially in smaller panels that lack detail, but the combination of pencil work and painted backgrounds effectively communicates the lesson. The final pages offer a fill-in-the-blank description of Milo’s first day at camp, as well as an emotion-themed puzzle.
A useful book for elementary schoolers still struggling with big emotions.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2022
ISBN: 979-8985011012
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Kettlepot Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors.
A confused squirrel overreacts to the falling autumn leaves.
Relaxing on a tree branch, Squirrel admires the red, gold, and orange leaves. Suddenly Squirrel screams, “One of my leaves is…MISSING!” Searching for the leaf, Squirrel tells Bird, “Someone stole my leaf!” Spying Mouse sailing in a leaf boat, Squirrel asks if Mouse stole the leaf. Mouse calmly replies in the negative. Bird reminds Squirrel it’s “perfectly normal to lose a leaf or two at this time of year.” Next morning Squirrel panics again, shrieking, “MORE LEAVES HAVE BEEN STOLEN!” Noticing Woodpecker arranging colorful leaves, Squirrel queries, “Are those my leaves?” Woodpecker tells Squirrel, “No.” Again, Bird assures Squirrel that no one’s taking the leaves and that the same thing happened last year, then encourages Squirrel to relax. Too wired to relax despite some yoga and a bath, the next day Squirrel cries “DISASTER” at the sight of bare branches. Frantic now, Squirrel becomes suspicious upon discovering Bird decorating with multicolored leaves. Is Bird the culprit? In response, Bird shows Squirrel the real Leaf Thief: the wind. Squirrel’s wildly dramatic, misguided, and hyperpossessive reaction to a routine seasonal event becomes a rib-tickling farce through clever use of varying type sizes and weights emphasizing his absurd verbal pronouncements as well as exaggerated, comic facial expressions and body language. Bold colors, arresting perspectives, and intense close-ups enhance Squirrel’s histrionics. Endnotes explain the science behind the phenomenon.
A hilarious autumnal comedy of errors. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-3520-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
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
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