Comforting, uplifting, and full of nostalgia.
Painter and TV host Bob Ross helps a young immigrant discover art, make new friends, and bring back Mama’s smile.
Rima feels lonely and uncertain in her new faraway home. Mama assures her that their life will be better, but she seems so sad and distant. The voices Rima hears on the television are strange, but one gives her pause. The man speaks in a soft singsong voice as he paints an entirely new world on his canvas. Inspired, Rima sits down to draw the next time his show is on. Rima invites Mama to join her, but Mama’s notepad remains blank. Still, Rima’s enthusiasm is contagious—she makes one friend and then others, and they all draw “big old trees, almighty mountains, and happy little clouds.” But the biggest surprise of all is the smile that’s returned to Mama’s face one day as she displays paintbrushes, canvases, and paints so they can create a new world together. Drawing from her own experiences, Boukarim perfectly captures the creative genius and kind mannerisms of Bob Ross, as seen on his TV program The Joy of Painting, as she weaves a gentle tale of joy, healing, community, and the power of art. At times Iwai’s beautiful watercolorlike illustrations reflect the quality of Ross’ paintings; at others, they have the whimsy of a child’s drawings. Hints in the text cue Rima and her mother as Middle Eastern.
Comforting, uplifting, and full of nostalgia. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 22, 2025
ISBN: 9781250881311
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 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
As insubstantial as hot air.
A diverse cast of children first makes a fleet of hot air balloons and then takes to the sky in them.
Lifestyle maven Gaines uses this activity as a platform to celebrate diversity in learning and working styles. Some people like to work together; others prefer a solo process. Some take pains to plan extensively; others know exactly what they want and jump right in. Some apply science; others demonstrate artistic prowess. But “see how beautiful it can be when / our differences share the same sky?” Double-page spreads leading up to this moment of liftoff are laid out such that rhyming abcb quatrains typically contain one or two opposing concepts: “Some of us are teachers / and share what we know. / But all of us are learners. / Together is how we grow!” In the accompanying illustration, a bespectacled, Asian-presenting child at a blackboard lectures the other children on “balloon safety.” Gaines’ text has the ring of sincerity, but the sentiment is hardly an original one, and her verse frequently sacrifices scansion for rhyme. Sometimes it abandons both: “We may not look / or work or think the same, / but we all have an / important part to play.” Swaney’s delicate, pastel-hued illustrations do little to expand on the text, but they are pretty. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.2-by-18.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 70.7% of actual size.)
As insubstantial as hot air. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4003-1423-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tommy Nelson
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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