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BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

Name: BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
Author: Marc Brown
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5456-6

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM ARTHUR

by Marc Brown ; illustrated by Marc Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 25, 2022

A sweet ode to a ’90s favorite.

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The iconic aardvark gets a celebratory tome.

Arthur, Francine, Buster, D.W., and the rest of Elwood City celebrate 25 years of working, learning, and playing together in this rose-colored glimpse back at the Arthur series and eponymous television show. Life lessons, quotes, and warmly rendered illustrations pepper five sections ranging from “Believe in Yourself” to “Believe in Opening Your Eyes, Ears, and Heart” and “Believe in a Wonderful Kind of Day.” Less a treasury and more of a keepsake, this volume will mean the world to those who grew up watching the PBS program and reading the accompanying picture books and will mean very little to everyone else. The layout provides popular quotes from the books and show as well as new pieces of artwork that will delight die-hard fans. The material is thin but always encouraging, making for a poor reference text but an excellent eighth grade graduation present. Marc Brown’s creation has earned the love and respect of generations, and most readers will find something amusing in here, e.g., a D.W. witticism or hilarious joke from Buster that will remind them of weekday afternoons spent watching Arthur after finishing homework. The book never exploits this connection, instead seeking to pointedly remind readers of the lessons Arthur and his pals (including Pal the dog!) taught them and each other. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A sweet ode to a ’90s favorite. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-7595-5456-6

Page Count: 128

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
HOP HELPS OUT
by Marc Brown with Peter K. Hirsch & Tolon Brown ; illustrated by Marc Brown

- BOOK REVIEW
WHY DID THE MONSTER CROSS THE ROAD?
by R.L. Stine ; illustrated by Marc Brown

- BOOK REVIEW
EVERYONE COUNTS
by Judy Sierra ; illustrated by Marc Brown

- PROFILES
4 Questions for Marc Brown

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SPAGHETTI HEAD & CHICKEN FINGERS

by Rhett McLaughlin & Link Neal ; illustrated by Erica Salcedo ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2026

Wild and wacky.

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A picture book from the comedy duo known as Rhett & Link, creators of the online juggernaut Good Mythical Morning.

Lumo is obsessed with chicken fingers; Saffy, who is new to town and anxious about starting school, finds comfort in the only food she likes: buttered spaghetti. The night before the first day of school, a thunderstorm rages, and each kid makes a wish—“to have chicken fingers at school,” in Lumo’s case; Saffy wishes for “the first thing off the top of her head: buttered spaghetti.” File under “Be careful what you wish for.” Lumo’s and Saffy’s respective physical changes (chicken fingers for fingers, spaghetti for hair) make navigating school a challenge but bring them together in the cafeteria, where they enjoy some new foods—and their new friendship. The plotting could have been sharper: Why do the kids’ bodies suddenly return to normal? And couldn’t the authors have thought up a less old-hat story-ending punch line? Nevertheless, McLaughlin and Neal get by on their charm, and the plot sets up some funny visuals. Salcedo’s cartoony Photoshop art features well-chosen artifacts from a typical kid’s life and captures the mortification of not fitting in, which will be familiar even to readers who have never experienced breaded fingers or noodle hair. Lumo is brown-skinned and dark-haired; Saffy is pale-skinned with disheveled reddish-brown hair.

Wild and wacky. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: June 16, 2026

ISBN: 9780063474154

Page Count: 32

Publisher: HarperPop/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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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)