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SMUG SEAGULL

Name: SMUG SEAGULL
Author: Maddie Frost
ISBN: 978-0-316-52319-6

by Maddie Frost ; illustrated by Maddie Frost ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 26, 2020

Swipe this one off the shelf for a belly-laugh–inducing beach read.

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Smug Seagull meets its match.

The titular avian character is smug because it’s “the best snack swiper from shore to shore,” if it does say so itself—and it does. Repeatedly. No beachgoer’s snack is safe from its swiping ways, and it’s darn proud of that fact. “I got my name in lights!” it brags, pointing to a lamppost sign reading: “ATTENTION PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE SEAGULLS.” And “I got my name in the sky,” it continues, flying near a plane pulling a banner that advertises “The Seagull Grill.” The comics-influenced storytelling, with sunny-hued panels and speech balloons, is ideal for the text’s cheeky humor, which owes something of a debt to Mo Willems’ Pigeon books. Smug Seagull gets its comeuppance not from a bus driver, but when a tiny crab swipes back a french fry the gull had swiped from the crustacean. A slapstick chase ensues, complete with underwater antics, and a decidedly less smug Smug Seagull emerges from the sea, humbled, dismayed, and french fry–less. Things take a turn for the worse when it realizes beachgoers have found ways to prevent it from swiping their snacks. “I’VE LOST MY SWIPE TO A CRAB!!!” Smug Seagull wails. But all is not lost. The crab shows the gulls how to endear themselves to “tiny humans” and still get plenty of snacks.

Swipe this one off the shelf for a belly-laugh–inducing beach read. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: May 26, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-316-52319-6

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
SHARED SPACE
by Maddie Frost ; illustrated by Maddie Frost

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GO TO WIZARD'S WHARF
by Maddie Frost ; illustrated by Maddie Frost

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WOMBATS! GO CAMPING
by Maddie Frost ; illustrated by Maddie Frost

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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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)