An original spin on the find-the-power-within story.
Pop music’s favorite flautist makes her picture-book debut with a story about a kid trying to find her voice.
A girl named Lil Lizzo—brown-skinned, with Afro puffs and expressive eyebrows—is feeling adrift at school: “When Lil Lizzo tried to find her own song, / nothing came out, y’all—it was all wrong.” Her curiosity is piqued when she drops by the school’s music room, where she meets a talking flute to whom she appeals for help: “Sasha B. Flootin’? I need a song— / to sing for my class so I can belong.” Suddenly Lil Lizzo and Sasha magically find themselves in a series of noisy realms (jungle, ocean, outer space), none of which enables Lizzo to make music when she tries to play Sasha. As it turns out, the trick isn’t seeking inspiration from the world: Lizzo and Sasha discover that “the music that came when they played from the heart / was funky and joyful and real—it was art!” Pett’s cartoonish digital illustrations imbue Lizzo’s face with a spectrum of emotions, including satisfaction when, at book’s end, she leads an impromptu marching band comprising fellow students and school staff. The message is mixed—does making music require looking within or collaboration? Both?—but the rhymes snap with Lizzo-tude, and the tale might help demystify the idea of playing a musical instrument.
An original spin on the find-the-power-within story. (QR code to a song from Lizzo) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9781665951449
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
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
© Copyright 2026 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.
