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
Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings.
The Crayons head back to class in this latest series entry.
Daywalt’s expository text lays out the basics as various Crayons wave goodbye to the beach, choose a first-day outfit, greet old friends, and make new ones. As in previous outings, the perennially droll illustrations and hand-lettered Crayon-speak drive the humor. The ever wrapperless Peach, opining, “What am I going to wear?” surveys three options: top hat and tails, a chef’s toque and apron, and a Santa suit. New friends Chunky Toddler Crayon (who’s missing a bite-sized bit of their blue point) and Husky Toddler Crayon speculate excitedly on their common last name: “I wonder if we’re related!” White Crayon, all but disappearing against the page’s copious white space, sits cross-legged reading a copy of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man. And Yellow and Orange, notable for their previous existential argument about the color of the sun, find agreement in science class: Jupiter, clearly, is yellow AND orange. Everybody’s excited about art class—“Even if they make a mess. Actually…ESPECIALLY if they make a mess!” Here, a spread of crayoned doodles of butterflies, hearts, and stars is followed by one with fulsome scribbles. Fans of previous outings will spot cameos from Glow in the Dark and yellow-caped Esteban (the Crayon formerly known as Pea Green). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 9780593621110
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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