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LILIBET MAKES A FRIEND

Name: LILIBET MAKES A FRIEND
Author: Kersten Hamilton
ISBN: 9781368104197

by Kersten Hamilton ; illustrated by Shanda McCloskey ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 7, 2026

A friendship tale as unique as it is heartbreaking and as winsome as it is moving.

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A girl who has only pretend friends opens her life to a real one.

Lilibet has “tons of friends.” There’s a catch, though: Her pals are imaginary. Still, they give Lilibet the confidence she needs to manage at school and make awesome things in her lab. One day when she’s outside gathering supplies, her classmate Peanut asks Lilibet about a drawing in her notebook; when she tells him it’s her plan for “making a friend,” Peanut offers to assist. He proves to be a great helper, which, it turns out, is an excellent quality in a non-imaginary friend—someone who, Lilibet comes to realize, can’t be expected to satisfy a list of conditions she has written in her notebook. What’s lovely and clever here is the way that Hamilton, without spelling it out, and McCloskey, who captures facial expressions with a few strokes, give young readers all they require to recognize what’s really going on: Lilibet’s imaginary friends aren’t meeting all her needs. Hamilton and McCloskey, who reliably delivers dynamic Procreate-colored scenes, bring a marvelous specificity to each aspect of this story. For Peanut, things aren’t just cool, they’re “cool-cool,” and readers are unlikely to find a picture book that makes more entertaining use of a pink Marie Antoinette wig. Lilibet has pinkish skin and a brown bob; Peanut has brown skin and a wavy reddish-brown undercut.

A friendship tale as unique as it is heartbreaking and as winsome as it is moving. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: April 7, 2026

ISBN: 9781368104197

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE TUGBOAT AND THE SILVER MOON
by Kersten Hamilton ; illustrated by Barry Gott

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT'S UP, PUP?
by Kersten Hamilton ; illustrated by Lili Chin

- BOOK REVIEW
ORANGE EXCAVATOR
by Kersten Hamilton ; illustrated by Valeria Petrone

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LITTLE BLUE TRUCK LOST AND FOUND

From the Little Blue Truck series

by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 18, 2026

Fun times, fond friends, and a festive farmyard setting—little ones will be charmed.

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Beep! Beep! Beep! Toad and Little Blue Truck get ready for a hayride.

After the titular vehicle is loaded with hay, Toad is nowhere to be found. “Beep! Beep! Beep! Where are you, Toad?” asks Little Blue Truck. All the barnyard animals look for him. Sheep searches the meadow. Goose and Duck check the pond. Others pitch in, too, but Toad seems to have disappeared…until Hen hears snoring coming from the pile of hay in the back of Little Blue Truck. Although the text’s scansion is imperfect in places (adults may want to pre-read to ensure a smooth read-aloud), the bouncy meter and rhyming text nevertheless capture the energy of the search and the farmyard community’s concern for Toad’s safety, making this a solid storytime choice. Eye-catching illustrations with rich, fully saturated colors balance the right level of detail while still highlighting the animal that is the focus of each verse. By introducing one farm animal at a time, Schertle also helps the youngest readers begin to identify barnyard animals by name and understand their unique farm homes. Traditional animal sounds are part of the text, and listeners will add them to their vocabulary. It all ends with the promised hayride, bringing the tale to a joyous ending.

Fun times, fond friends, and a festive farmyard setting—little ones will be charmed. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2026

ISBN: 9780063436121

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S TRANSPORTATION

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK AND RACER RED
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BLUE TRUCK MAKES A FRIEND
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by Jill McElmurry

- BOOK REVIEW
TIME FOR SCHOOL, LITTLE BLUE TRUCK
by Alice Schertle ; illustrated by John Joseph

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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)