bookshelf

ALEX AND LULU

Name: ALEX AND LULU
Author: Lorena Siminovich
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4423-9

TWO OF A KIND

by Lorena Siminovich & illustrated by Lorena Siminovich ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2009

bookshelf

Clean lines and muted colors lend a simple charm to Siminovich’s flat cartoon illustrations—which compensates, at least in part, for her jackhammer style of lesson delivery. Alex (a dog) and Lulu (a cat) love pillow fights and playing on the swings. But because he also likes sports, climbing trees, jumping in puddles, pretending to be a sailor and other boy things, while she’s more into painting, reading and flowers, Alex begins to fret that they’re “too different to be friends.” After going off on a tangent with a disquisition on “opposites,” Lulu leadingly restores his equanimity by explaining that “ ‘sometimes it’s because we’re so different that we have the most fun when we’re—’ ‘Together!’ shouts Alex.” Most younger children aren’t likely to be so analytical about their friendships—and those who are may be more convinced by the many better articulated celebrations of differences, from Frog and Toad and Tony Johnston’s Alien and Possum on. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: March 1, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-7636-4423-9

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Templar/Candlewick

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2009

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
GARDEN
by Lorena Siminovich ; illustrated by Lorena Siminovich

- BOOK REVIEW
YOU KNOW WHAT I LOVE?
by Lorena Siminovich ; illustrated by Lorena Siminovich

- BOOK REVIEW
YOU ARE MY BABY
by Lorena Siminovich ; illustrated by Lorena Siminovich

bookshelf

BACK TO SCHOOL, BACKPACK!

by Simon Rich ; illustrated by Tom Toro ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2023

Will give children the emotional distance to process their own first-day jitters.

bookshelf

Everyone’s nervous about going to school—even your backpack!

After months of relaxing in the closet over the summer, a green backpack quivers with nerves when it hears the words back to school. The backpack has to be pried from the closet by a light-skinned child with a blond ponytail. Going to school is, we learn, a far more terrifying prospect for a backpack. “First you open my mouth and shove a bunch of strange new books and binders down my throat.” Slung over the child’s shoulders, the backpack “can’t even see where I’m going.” At school, the backpack is smashed, stuffed, and dragged. But the worst part of school is that the backpack doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere—a feeling that will be familiar to many readers. All that changes when it crashes into another backpack worn by a child with dark skin, short curly hair, and glasses. The punny moral of the story? Life is better with a friend “because you don’t have to carry everything alone.” This funny romp will leave readers feeling empowered for their own first days. Strategically placed black pages with white lettering ramp up the drama. In Toro’s exaggerated cartoon illustrations, the backpack is wonderfully expressive, its eyes and zipper mouth conveying panic, nausea, a longing to belong, and, finally, happiness. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Will give children the emotional distance to process their own first-day jitters. (Picture book. 4-6)

Pub Date: July 11, 2023

ISBN: 9780316628341

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
I'M TERRIFIED OF BATH TIME
by Simon Rich ; illustrated by Tom Toro

bookshelf

TACKY AND THE WINTER GAMES

by Helen Lester & illustrated by Lynn Munsinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 24, 2005

bookshelf

Lester’s Tacky is tacky, though he is even more a Society of Oddfellows unto himself, a pleasing misfit among his righteous penguin cohort of Goodly, Lovely, Angel, Neatly and Perfect. Tacky is joyously oblivious of their rectitude as they prepare for the penguin Winter Games, pumping iron and skipping rope as Tacky catches a few zzz’s and equips his exer-cycle with a horn and tassels, chows pizza and donuts as the others dutifully swallow their spinach (and Munsinger is perfect here, easily capturing both sniffyness and unbridled appetite). Tacky unintentionally subverts the rules of the Games, winning but losing as officials disqualify his unorthodox stratagems. Finally, his team grabs a victory despite the fact that Tacky ate the baton. A citizen of the deep cold, it’s another Frost that Tacky emulates, the one who recommends the road not taken. Tacky, the clueless role model, takes it all the time. (Picture book. 4-6)