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THE HUNT

Name: THE HUNT
Author: Margaux Othats
ISBN: 978-0-9972219-0-9

by Margaux Othats ; illustrated by Margaux Othats ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2017

A simple story with a powerful anti-violence message.

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A small child creates a stone sculpture despite the repeated efforts of hunters to destroy it.

As the child positions a stone on a small pile of rocks, two adults with rifles appear, shoot the rocks, and run away. The child rebuilds, adding a large boulder. The hunters reappear, shoot the construction to pieces, and disappear. Again, the child assembles a larger rock mound and the hunters return, blast it, and flee. Undaunted, the child constructs a larger sculpture with a head and ears. Again, the hunters obliterate it. Eventually, the child creates a huge sculpture resembling a dog that rises up on its hind legs, chases the hunters, and grabs one by the shirt as the child sits triumphantly astride its back. This wordless, mystifying, repetitious encounter between destructive hunters and persevering child unfolds in a vertical page-turn format. Rendered in softly shaded colored pencil, the limited palette of grey, black, pale peach, green, and red fosters a surreal atmosphere. Appearing like cutouts against the white background, the featureless hunters and child, all pale-skinned with black hair, provide no clues. Who are these hunters, and why are they shooting the child’s sculpture? The final diagonal movement of the stone sculpture descending downward across the double-page spread adds visual drama to this cryptic battle between creativity and destruction.

A simple story with a powerful anti-violence message. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 15, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-9972219-0-9

Page Count: 36

Publisher: Penny Candy

Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2017

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)

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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RUBY FINDS A WORRY

From the Big Bright Feelings series

by Tom Percival ; illustrated by Tom Percival ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019

A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their...

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Ruby is an adventurous and happy child until the day she discovers a Worry.

Ruby barely sees the Worry—depicted as a blob of yellow with a frowny unibrow—at first, but as it hovers, the more she notices it and the larger it grows. The longer Ruby is affected by this Worry, the fewer colors appear on the page. Though she tries not to pay attention to the Worry, which no one else can see, ignoring it prevents her from enjoying the things that she once loved. Her constant anxiety about the Worry causes the bright yellow blob to crowd Ruby’s everyday life, which by this point is nearly all washes of gray and white. But at the playground, Ruby sees a boy sitting on a bench with a growing sky-blue Worry of his own. When she invites the boy to talk, his Worry begins to shrink—and when Ruby talks about her own Worry, it also grows smaller. By the book’s conclusion, Ruby learns to control her Worry by talking about what worries her, a priceless lesson for any child—or adult—conveyed in a beautifully child-friendly manner. Ruby presents black, with hair in cornrows and two big afro-puff pigtails, while the boy has pale skin and spiky black hair.

A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their feelings (. (Picture book. 4-6)