Whimsical, wonderful, and altogether magical. A doorway to doorways and beyond.
Gateways of every possible shape, color, and use abound in this ode to the spirit of children’s book author Ruth Krauss.
“A door is to open,” an unseen narrator tells us as a child invites in a cat and its kittens, their eyes wide open and aware. So begins an explanation of the many types and myriad functions of these everyday passages. Some doors are ideal for games like knocking and then hiding or for spinning around in, as with a revolving door. Doors can be transparent, but they can also hide you away. They are mysteries; some evoke strong feelings when you don’t know what you’ll encounter on the other side (like on the first day of school). Of course, there are also doorways in nature and those of a more metaphysical or philosophical nature. Ultimately, young readers are encouraged to make doors of their own. Morstad’s illustrations, depicting black-eyed children in an array of abilities and skin tones, complement this heady cacophony of concepts. A clear homage to Krauss and Maurice Sendak’s classic A Hole Is To Dig, Maclear’s text is open-ended in its praise for its subject, giving Morstad full rein to unleash her creative powers, and she obliges, filling pages with everything from unicorns to rainbow-striped mystery tunnels. In the end, perhaps the lesson is that a door is simply what one makes of it.
Whimsical, wonderful, and altogether magical. A doorway to doorways and beyond. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: May 12, 2026
ISBN: 9781774887448
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A bit predictable but pleasantly illustrated.
Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault’s classic alphabet book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989) gets the Halloween treatment.
Chung follows the original formula to the letter. In alphabetical order, each letter climbs to the top of a tree. They are knocked back to the ground in a jumble before climbing up in sequence again. In homage to the spooky holiday theme, they scale a “creaky old tree,” and a ghostly jump scare causes the pileup. The chunky, colorful art is instantly recognizable. The charmingly costumed letters (“H swings a tail. / I wears a patch. J and K don / bows that don’t match”) are set against a dark backdrop, framed by pages with orange or purple borders. The spreads feature spiderwebs and jack-o’-lanterns. The familiar rhyme cadence is marred by the occasional clunky or awkward phrase; in particular, the adapted refrain of “Chicka chicka tricka treat” offers tongue-twisting fun, but it’s repeatedly followed by the disappointing half-rhyme “Everybody sneaka sneak.” Even this odd construction feels shoehorned into place, since “sneaking” makes little sense when every character in the book is climbing together. The final line of the book ends on a more satisfying note, with “Everybody—time to eat!”
A bit predictable but pleasantly illustrated. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781665954785
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
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
BOOK REVIEW
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