A thoughtful storytime pick to get little ones asking big questions.
Two children learn lessons in acceptance as they peer across a book’s gutter.
The youngsters, both light-skinned with short brown hair, approach a tall hedge dividing the open white space of the page. One of them, wearing a solid-colored shirt, says to the other, clad in a striped shirt, “You really have to wonder what they are thinking.” But who are “they”? An amorphous sphere of green, blue, and white forms floats on the other side of the hedge, apparently invisible to the protagonists, as the first child explains, “Them. The other people.” Notions of us vs. them break down as the more open-minded youngster poses questions that suggest that the two children might have more in common with the unseen people than they realize. Meanwhile, the position of the hedge, dividing the spread in half, deftly reinforces the sense of opposition and separation that undergird the story’s thematic structure. As the kids establish that the “others” likely have thoughts, feelings, and connections, figures in the once-shapeless blob become fully human. Finally, the child in stripes rebels against the hedge’s physical divide and climbs over to the other side, an act that prompts debate, giving way to some profound conclusions: “Maybe there’s just us? And maybe we are all here together.” Probing text, made up entirely of dialogue, pairs cleverly designed layouts for a compelling tale that suggests that it’s ignorance that truly divides us—and knowledge that unites us.
A thoughtful storytime pick to get little ones asking big questions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9780593839676
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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
As insubstantial as hot air.
A diverse cast of children first makes a fleet of hot air balloons and then takes to the sky in them.
Lifestyle maven Gaines uses this activity as a platform to celebrate diversity in learning and working styles. Some people like to work together; others prefer a solo process. Some take pains to plan extensively; others know exactly what they want and jump right in. Some apply science; others demonstrate artistic prowess. But “see how beautiful it can be when / our differences share the same sky?” Double-page spreads leading up to this moment of liftoff are laid out such that rhyming abcb quatrains typically contain one or two opposing concepts: “Some of us are teachers / and share what we know. / But all of us are learners. / Together is how we grow!” In the accompanying illustration, a bespectacled, Asian-presenting child at a blackboard lectures the other children on “balloon safety.” Gaines’ text has the ring of sincerity, but the sentiment is hardly an original one, and her verse frequently sacrifices scansion for rhyme. Sometimes it abandons both: “We may not look / or work or think the same, / but we all have an / important part to play.” Swaney’s delicate, pastel-hued illustrations do little to expand on the text, but they are pretty. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.2-by-18.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 70.7% of actual size.)
As insubstantial as hot air. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4003-1423-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tommy Nelson
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
