Engaging, informative, and accessible.
A user’s manual that explains the why of self-care.
From the first page, upbeat language directly addressed to a child celebrates four “fabulous” features of bodies that need to be kept clean: skin, teeth, hair, and nails. Rockwell goes into detail on each of these attributes: basic biology, what it does, and how to care for it. We learn what microbes are and how we can protect ourselves from harmful ones, what makes hair straight or curly (and how to treat lice), why flossing and brushing are important, and much more. The smiling children depicted—all students in the same class—are racially diverse; one uses a wheelchair, one has albinism, and several wear glasses. Rockwell’s warm, realistic watercolor, gouache, and pencil art shows kids actively caring for themselves—combing their hair and bathing—and adults assisting with essential parts of care (trimming a youngster’s fingernails, bandaging a cut). The illustrations go into great detail at times—for instance, a closer look at the skin’s layers or a tooth’s structure. Incidental rhymes and rhythm add interest and reinforce the positive message: “To be the best you is not hard to do.” A final spread offers a glossary and resources for parents and extends the care advice to eating healthy food, exercising, getting enough sleep, staying up to date on vaccines, and taking care of emotional health. There’s just enough science, and the advice is concise, clear, and attractively presented.
Engaging, informative, and accessible. (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9780316581219
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet and endearing feathered migration.
A relationship between a Latina grandmother and her mixed-race granddaughter serves as the frame to depict the ruby-throated hummingbird migration pattern.
In Granny’s lap, a girl is encouraged to “keep still” as the intergenerational pair awaits the ruby-throated hummingbirds with bowls of water in their hands. But like the granddaughter, the tz’unun—“the word for hummingbird in several [Latin American] languages”—must soon fly north. Over the next several double-page spreads, readers follow the ruby-throated hummingbird’s migration pattern from Central America and Mexico through the United States all the way to Canada. Davies metaphorically reunites the granddaughter and grandmother when “a visitor from Granny’s garden” crosses paths with the girl in New York City. Ray provides delicately hashed lines in the illustrations that bring the hummingbirds’ erratic flight pattern to life as they travel north. The watercolor palette is injected with vibrancy by the addition of gold ink, mirroring the hummingbirds’ flashing feathers in the slants of light. The story is supplemented by notes on different pages with facts about the birds such as their nest size, diet, and flight schedule. In addition, a note about ruby-throated hummingbirds supplies readers with detailed information on how ornithologists study and keep track of these birds.
A sweet and endearing feathered migration. (bibliography, index) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0538-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
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