A carefully crafted opening for difficult but important conversations.
A youngster finds a way to heal after sexual abuse by a mentor.
Shreya loves art class, including her teacher, Mr. Rao. When she wears her favorite brightly colored dress to school on her birthday, she is overjoyed that he wants to paint her portrait. But once she is alone with him in the art room, Mr. Rao kisses her and tells her to keep it a secret. Shreya feels ashamed that she didn’t say no or tell a trusted adult—all things she’s been told to do if someone makes her feel uncomfortable. As Shreya makes her paintings drab and ugly to avoid standing out, Anand’s expressive illustrations turn dark and shadowy, reflecting Shreya’s turbulent emotional state. Finally, another girl reports Mr. Rao to the principal, which empowers Shreya to tell her mother what happened. Color begins to return to the illustrations. The next time Shreya goes to art class, Mr. Rao is gone. Standing beside her classmate and looking at a blank canvas, Shreya realizes she can begin to paint in color again. Patel deals with a devastating topic in a direct but age-appropriate way; importantly, she normalizes the complex feelings and reactions that youngsters can experience in the wake of abuse even after receiving education about consent, and she models a truly supportive and loving adult response. Shreya and her mother are brown-skinned and of South Asian heritage.
A carefully crafted opening for difficult but important conversations. (resources, social worker’s note) (Picture book. 5-10)Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781646146307
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Levine Querido
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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