A creative tale of self-expression, hampered by sometimes-lackluster imagery.
In the third book in author/illustrator Testé’s kids’ book series, a girl struggles to finish a homework assignment.
An unnamed narrator is just settling down at his desk to do some schoolwork when he hears his 6-year-old younger sister, Jazz, kicking up a fuss in her bedroom. Her room is a messy disaster, and she’s bemoaning an assignment she must complete for school. She comes up with a creative list of 26 words that each start with a different letter of the alphabet. She’s distraught at the prospect of picking her own words, which she sees as a terribly boring task, but her brother has a plan to help inspire her creativity. He begins to think up short rhymes to describe terms in his own mind, to help Jazz for her assignment; his words include aislefor A and knockfor K. Delighted at the silent letters, Jazz perks up, but she requests less “hardcore” suggestions. After he offers themed collections, such as circus-related terms, she asks for more “grownup” words. But she rejects “nerdy” ones, such as chitchat andkale. Jazz suddenly realizes that the words she loves most are onomatopoeic, like fizzleand crackle. Her final list shows impressive creativity, and the book as a whole effectively shows off Jazz’s artistic personality. The illustrations don’t show any skin tones (or fur tones, for the occasional Seussian animals), which gives the characters a feeling of sameness that reads as a lack of diversity. Occasional blocks of color seem meant to signify backgrounds, but they don’t follow any clear theme; young readers may wish that the images showcased a richer range of hues.
A creative tale of self-expression, hampered by sometimes-lackluster imagery.Pub Date: Dec. 16, 2022
ISBN: 978-1959961055
Page Count: 78
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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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