This engaging tale encourages resistance to gender stereotypes and highlights the power of discomfiting labels.
In this picture book, a girl resists being called a tomboy.
Li Na and her friends love to do many things, including rollerblading. But mean Mrs. James scoffs as she passes by and says: “I’m so glad my daughter is NOT a tomboy!” Intuiting that this term can be derogatory, Li Na is unhappy when Mr. and Mrs. Samar use the word to praise her saving a cat. And when Dan says she plays soccer “like a boy,” that description also upsets her. Miss Nichols, a teacher, underscores a source of Li Na’s discomfort when she says “a tomboy is no beauty.” Li Na points out that “blue looks great on us. Pink makes us look dapper.” Author/illustrator Wee’s striking, lineless images in bright colors with digital textures show a suburban world full of parks and trees where children with large heads and eyes play. Multiracial kids on a stage ride on whales and pirate ships, share leadership tasks, and hold signs with negative appellations like “nerdy.” A long-haired Black boy displays one with the substantially charged label “sissy.” The children reject these signs and instead hold up ones to reclaim their own names to parental applause. These are all positive messages in an inspiring story. But when Li Na asserts, “I am no tomboy. I am not like a boy,” some readers may wonder what the book’s stance on children who identify as gender-nonconforming might be.
This engaging tale encourages resistance to gender stereotypes and highlights the power of discomfiting labels.Pub Date: March 31, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-9136080-37-4
Page Count: 31
Publisher: Dixi books
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet, springtime-themed reworking of a beloved tale.
The classic picture book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989) gets a makeover for Easter as the letters of the alphabet locate and decorate eggs.
The mission is simple: “Chicka chicka peek peek. / Everybody seek seek! / Find all the eggs / in the pretty pink tree.” The letters are making their way up the flowering tree in search of the hidden eggs when a “SNEEZE!” scatters everyone and the eggs fall and crack. Luckily, a bunny hops by with a haul of new ones, which the letters then paint and bedazzle, eventually sharing the newly decorated eggs with a group of bunnies. This picture book is a successfully Easter-fied version of the original: The letters go up; the letters fall down. Truly, though, that’s all the preschool crowd needs. Chung’s illustrations are simple and familiar, a direct echo of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. The letters appear in colorful, bold, block form. The book has few added details, just focal images like the tree and its pink flowers, the colorful eggs, tufts of grass, and some friendly rabbits. The alphabet appears in order (both upper- and lowercase letters) at the book’s open and close. The rhyming text follows the iconic cadence of the source material, making for a worthy read-aloud that will keep little hands turning pages.
A sweet, springtime-themed reworking of a beloved tale. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2026
ISBN: 9781665990646
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
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BOOK REVIEW
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