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I DON'T WANT TO BE QUIET!

Perfect for lively read-alouds, especially during times of homebound play when children just need to shout!

Bold, brash, and bursting with personality—this book should be read with an outdoor voice!

Endpapers explode with colors and patterns, and the protagonist—a beige-skinned kid with straight, black hair—declares, “I don’t want to be quiet, I’d rather be LOUD!” Readers will know a boisterous adventure awaits them. Clad in a robot mask and carrying a broom turned into a rocket ship, the narrator is full of life and loves being loud, at the expense of baby brother’s nap and Mom’s patience. Lively rhyming text, set at times in big capital letters, conveys this kid’s enthusiasm, bouncing through life raucously, making noise on stairs and with spoons, humming, popping balloons, burping (“oops”), and more. But then, during a trip to the quiet library (“BORING”), when, following an outburst, other library users shush the noisemaker, the effusive protagonist opens a book. Within is a thrilling tale to keep that busy mind occupied while reading silently. Readers can see the adventures the narrator imagines, rendered with equal joy to the real-life escapades. Better still, it turns out that being quiet leads to the discovery of all sorts of new sounds all around. Fear not, this kid still has loud moments, but now they are balanced. Vivid, imaginative illustrations engage readers and viscerally convey the wide range of emotions felt by this audacious protagonist. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.8-by-19-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Perfect for lively read-alouds, especially during times of homebound play when children just need to shout! (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-593-11728-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Philomel

Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

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

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RUBY FINDS A WORRY

From the Big Bright Feelings series

A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their...

Ruby is an adventurous and happy child until the day she discovers a Worry.

Ruby barely sees the Worry—depicted as a blob of yellow with a frowny unibrow—at first, but as it hovers, the more she notices it and the larger it grows. The longer Ruby is affected by this Worry, the fewer colors appear on the page. Though she tries not to pay attention to the Worry, which no one else can see, ignoring it prevents her from enjoying the things that she once loved. Her constant anxiety about the Worry causes the bright yellow blob to crowd Ruby’s everyday life, which by this point is nearly all washes of gray and white. But at the playground, Ruby sees a boy sitting on a bench with a growing sky-blue Worry of his own. When she invites the boy to talk, his Worry begins to shrink—and when Ruby talks about her own Worry, it also grows smaller. By the book’s conclusion, Ruby learns to control her Worry by talking about what worries her, a priceless lesson for any child—or adult—conveyed in a beautifully child-friendly manner. Ruby presents black, with hair in cornrows and two big afro-puff pigtails, while the boy has pale skin and spiky black hair.

A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their feelings (. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-5476-0237-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019

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