This doe-eyed dragon may help children look to others who are different with compassion instead of fear, whether it be on...
A cautionary tale about the dangers of prejudging others.
Sherwyn, a little boy with a pair of binoculars strung around his neck, is an explorer. One day, while on an expedition, he finds a curious sparkly item. He gives it a tug and realizes it is a tail attached to a dragon! Understandably, Sherwyn gives a horrified shout. But the dragon is smiling. This makes Sherwyn pause and begin a conversation. When Sherwyn points out the dragon’s scary, pointy scales, the dragon expounds on the importance of seeing the whole picture; she sheds a scale, and Sherwyn sees that it is actually a heart. The dragon is a peace dragon. To further illustrate the point, when Sherwyn brings the dragon back to his village, the townsfolk immediately think the dragon is dangerous and threaten to attack. The shadow from the angry mob forms the shape of a dragon on the ground. Seeing this, they realize they are the only scary dragon around. The fairly lengthy text is set in a thin, small sans-serif type and expressed in a chatty, conversational tone, with authorial asides (“In some stories, getting close to a dragon can be a very bad decision. This isn't that kind of story"). It makes no effort to conceal its teaching purpose, but there’s no question the advice it offers is sound.
This doe-eyed dragon may help children look to others who are different with compassion instead of fear, whether it be on the playground or in the world. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4867-1466-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flowerpot Press
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
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
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
