Gorgeous and grounding—a gentle guide to outgrowing your fears.
Shrinking Violet must face her anxieties when a friend needs her most.
Violet, who inhabits a “stately castle near the forest by the sea” with her avian pal, is at ease when she’s with Bird, but she becomes overwhelmed by fear whenever he flies off to explore. When Violet is frightened, her body shrinks until she’s nothing but a tiny wisp. One night, she races toward the faraway sound of Bird’s alarmed chirping. Narrowly escaping an enormous predatory bird, Violet is so terrified that she’s nearly invisible by the time she reaches her injured friend, and the larger bird has returned. But Violet is filled with love, and something magical happens: She grows until she’s taller than even the trees, bursting with courage. Even the book can scarcely contain Violet as her looming form nearly stretches off the page. Once the danger has passed, Violet visualizes favorite things—like warm toast with butter—until she’s just the right size to carry her friend home. The two live “ever after, if not always happily,” with Violet sometimes shrinking, sometimes growing, but always able to look inward and anchor herself. Snyder relies on sweet, quiet text to craft a modern mindfulness fairy tale starring an uncertain yet strong hero. Rendered in Pham’s signature gouache, the pages glow with lush, saturated blues and purples as pale-skinned, dark-haired Violet trembles, twirls, and ultimately blossoms into pastel rainbows of courage.
Gorgeous and grounding—a gentle guide to outgrowing your fears. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 31, 2026
ISBN: 9781797200729
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Chronicle Books
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
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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