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SLEEPY SHEEPY AND THE SHEEPOVER

Young readers needn’t feel sheepish about appreciating this sweet, entertaining story.

A slumber party is thrilling—until it isn’t.

Sleepy Sheepy is excited: He’s packed his suitcase and can’t wait for his first sheepover at Grammy and Grampy Sheepy’s house. He imagines the fun things he and his “two favorite folks” will do all night long. But anticipation is different from reality. Sleepy bids his parents good night. All of a sudden, this sheepover business doesn’t seem so fun. Everything feels different. The blankets are scratchy, his jammies don’t match, his tummy feels twisty, and his eyes are misty; even Grampy’s potato collection doesn’t distract him. Sleepy Sheepy can’t sleep; he misses home. Sleepy can’t explain his feelings to his beloved grandparents. But this wise pair know what’s what. Grampy whips up a batch of cookies, Grammy reads Goodnight Mooo’n (featuring a cow, natch)—Sleepy’s dad’s favorite—and all three dance to the Woolen Stones’ album Let It Bleat. Guess what? An exhausted Sleepy Sheepy hops into bed, ignores the blankets’ scratchiness, and falls asleep, feeling “right at home.” Cummins brings her gently humorous story, written in bouncy rhymes, to a predictable ending, but readers will enjoy it nonetheless, especially kids (er, lambs) who have had their own first “sheepovers” at a beloved relative’s home. The cheerful, lively illustrations are endearing; boldfaced typefaces of different sizes are incorporated playfully into the text.

Young readers needn’t feel sheepish about appreciating this sweet, entertaining story. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024

ISBN: 9780593465943

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Flamingo Books

Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

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

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TINY T. REX AND THE IMPOSSIBLE HUG

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.

With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?

Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)

Pub Date: March 5, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-4521-7033-6

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018

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