A simple story that demystifies a medical profession in an engaging way for young readers.
Harkness explores the role of the nurse practitioner in this illustrated children’s book.
Two excited young brothers with light-colored skin and fair hair talk about what their mother does in her job as a nurse practitioner: Similar to a doctor, a nurse practitioner helps people who are ill or injured, as well as those who seek preventative care. Mommy has been trained to help patients while working with doctors or by herself; a nurse practitioner is able to write prescriptions like a doctor, which is something that regular nurses aren’t trained to do. The author assures readers that even though the job requires some long, difficult days (“Most days Mommy’s job is hard, but some days it’s really, really hard”), helping people is what the narrators’ Mommy truly loves. The boys recognize the qualities in Mommy that make her a good fit for the job, including creativity, kindness, and dedication. (She says the boys’ hugs are healing, too—and Mommy definitely knows how to heal people, so it must be true.) The story ends with the whole family spending time together outside; the kids know that Mommy always tries to make time for them no matter how busy her schedule at work turns out to be. Claro’s illustrations are cartoonish and appear digitally rendered—some of the human characters have a haunting quality to their large eyes and smiles, especially the two young blond narrators. Happily, the illustrator does depict a wide range of ages, races, and body types throughout a series of vignettes demonstrating various nurse practitioner tasks. The stylized font used on some words for emphasis may be confusing to some readers because the letters are so close together. Harkness makes sure to emphasize that anyone can be a nurse practitioner, giving young readers a positive possible aspiration for the future.
A simple story that demystifies a medical profession in an engaging way for young readers.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2024
ISBN: 9781038305824
Page Count: 40
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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