A helpful, entertaining tale with much to teach both parents and kids.
In debut author Sloan’s illustrated children’s book, goats who faint with anxiety learn secrets of relaxation and mindfulness from a pig.
On Lil’ Steps Farm, almost everyone is relaxed—especially Wilbert the Pig, who takes deep breaths while enjoying a nice mud bath. However, Cindy and Cristabelle, the fainting goats, aren’t so calm, and whenever they’re worried or scared, they feel hot, their hearts race, their legs wobble, and they pass out. That happens pretty often, because there’s always something to fret about on a farm, including imagined “coyotes and bears and lions” who could decide to eat some farm animals. The goats turn down Wilbert’s invitation to relax by stargazing—being out at night is scary—but after a harmless bunny terrifies them, they go to him for help. Wilbert gladly teaches them about having fun, taking deep “belly breaths,” and being mindful, which allows them to enjoy life. A substantial activity booklet, co-written by Sloan and debut author and mental health counselor Lariviere, offers guidance for parents to help kids learn and practice new skills; it covers such topics as emotional self-regulation, identifying stress in the body, alarm responses, and anxiety-management techniques. In her debut book, Sloan—who provides animal-assisted counseling to children and teenagers—nicely combines instruction with appealing farmyard characters. The book also has great read-aloud potential; at one point, for instance, a “HUGE, SCARY, HUNGRY” creature (who turns out to be a rabbit) jumps out of the forest, and kids may have fun pretending to faint like the goats. The dialogue is well written and amusing, as when Wilbert says, “I am a pig. Not a coyote. Not a lion. Nor a bear.” The basic but clear explanations of how stress and anxiety feel are useful, and the activity booklet helpfully expands upon Wilbert’s suggestions. The uncredited, sketchy color illustrations vary in quality, though; for example, Wilbert looks realistic on some pages but cartoonish on others, and some images are reused multiple times.
A helpful, entertaining tale with much to teach both parents and kids.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2019
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 72
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Nov. 25, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A spectacular return to a magical world.
Following the events of Impossible Creatures (2024), a devoted Guardian teams up with a brave princess to fight her power-hungry uncle and save the Archipelago’s dragons from a strange new threat.
Jacques the dragon summons Christopher Forrester back to the Archipelago from the human world: Dragons are dying, and no one knows why. Meanwhile, on the island of Dousha, Princess Anya’s grandfather, King Halam, has been murdered, and her father accused—though she knows he’s innocent. When Christopher and Anya take refuge on the islet of Glimt, the Berserker Nighthand helps them see how their twin missions to save the dragons and free Anya’s father are connected. They work together to create an antidote for the poison that’s killing the dragons and to keep Anya and her father safe from her murderous uncle. Meanwhile, Nighthand and Irian, the part-nereid ocean scholar, pursue their own important secret mission. Divided into three parts—“Castle,” “Dragons,” and “Revenge”—and containing elements of fairy tales, fantasy, and Shakespeare, this story continues the storyline established in the series opener, yet because it introduces new characters and obstacles, it could also stand alone. Dark-blond Anya (“five feet tall and all of it claws”) is a match for white-presenting Christopher, who, though he still misses Mal, finds that “it made a difference to have someone to move through the world with again. A friend changed the feel of the universe.” Mackenzie’s delicate, otherworldly art adorns the text.
A spectacular return to a magical world. (map, bestiary) (Fantasy. 10-15)Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9780593809907
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
PROFILES
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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