A marvelous meditation on community and makeshift family.
For one youngster, a blackout ends up being more of an adventure than an inconvenience.
“It all happened on an afternoon like any other.” In this tale translated from Spanish, narrator Paula (pale-skinned, with chubby cheeks and pigtails), who lives with Dad and their dog, describes the day the power went out in their four-unit, five-story apartment building, home to a small, ethnically diverse assortment of kids, parents, and seniors. Amavisca’s dainty illustrations are centered on a building—“the prettiest one” in Paula’s unnamed city—whose improbable narrowness reinforces the story’s cozy, small-island-of-humanity vibe. Residents typically help one another out (“Sometimes, when my dad is really busy with work, Felipe’s grandpa picks us up from school”); during the blackout, neighbors lend a hand in new ways, as when elderly Mrs. Antonia, who lives on the top floor and sometimes needs assistance with her grocery shopping, hosts everyone for dinner because she’s the only one with a gas stove. For Paula and the other youngsters of the building, the blackout is thrilling, and when the lights come back on, “Saida, Felipe, and I shrugged at each other sadly.” There’s also a poignant thread about another upside to the power outage: It makes Paula’s father, who is often on the phone for work, more available. Of course, what happened during the blackout was partly internal: For Paula and others, it stoked feelings of belonging, gratitude, and comfort.
A marvelous meditation on community and makeshift family. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9791388132001
Page Count: 40
Publisher: NubeOcho
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 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
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