A joyful tale of finding connection and making friends.
Two boys—one Deaf, one hearing—learn to communicate in this picture book by author/illustrator Karthik.
Neel, the narrator, tells readers about his best friend: “Adil is Deaf. He uses his hands, body, and expressions to communicate. I learned that this is called signing.” Neel notes how Adil perceives the world without hearing: He touches music speakers to feel the bass pounding, and he watches a sign language interpreter translate what his teacher says during class. Neel, who doesn’t know how to sign, finds it difficult to communicate with Adil. Then, one day, they draw a comic together in which Mighty Neel and Super Adil fight a spaghetti monster with “tickle power.” Neel works on learning sign language, and together “the Doodling Duo” continue their comic adventures. Karthik’s book was originally published in India, and she bookends the story with both the American and Indian Sign Language alphabets. The illustrations are not only charming, but also brilliantly convey the movements of the characters’ sign language. Karthik notes that although Deaf kids may seem different from hearing children, “in lots of other ways—the books we read, the food we like, the jokes that make us fall over laughing—we are all the same.” This book delivers this message flawlessly with plenty of heart and good humor.
A joyful tale of finding connection and making friends.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
ISBN: 9781949528084
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Modern Marigold Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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