An empowering celebration of identity.
A girl explains her name’s pronunciation and significance to her new classmates.
Ai Lin is the only Asian-featured child in a classroom of children with many other shades of skin and hair colors. On the first day of school, the other kids don’t know how to say her name. “Island?” “Eileen?” they ask. “No,” Ai Lin replies, correcting their pronunciation. They persist. “Can we just call you Eileen?” Ai Lin then explains why her name is not to be changed; it is her heritage, carrying the hopes and dreams of her elders. She describes how each part of her name has a meaning. “Ai” means “love,” like warm hugs from Mama, and “Lin” means “gem,” precious and unique the way Baba sees her. Her sister also has a meaningful name, Ai Mei. “Ai” is for “love,” “just like me… It’s what I feel when I say her name.” “Mei” means “rose,” and the two sisters together are a lovely gem and a lovely rose. By the end of her explanation, the other children are listening intently and, of course, get her name exactly right the next day. Cheng’s sweet illustrations in a muted yet colorful palette convey Ai Lin’s childlike perspective of her classmates and her understanding of herself, her family, and her heritage.
An empowering celebration of identity. (author’s note, glossary) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781534113114
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.
In this latest in the series, Little Blue Truck, driven by pal Toad, is challenged to a countryside race by Racer Red, a sleek, low-slung vehicle.
Blue agrees, and the race is on. Although the two start off “hood to hood / and wheel to wheel,” they switch positions often as they speed their way over dusty country roads. Blue’s farm friends follow along to share in the excitement and shout out encouragement; adult readers will have fun voicing the various animal sounds. Short rhyming verses on each page and several strategic page turns add drama to the narrative, but soft, mottled effects in the otherwise colorful illustrations keep the competition from becoming too intense. Racer Red crosses the finish line first, but Blue is a gracious loser, happy to have worked hard. That’s a new concept for Racer Red, who’s laser-focused on victory but takes Blue’s words (“win or lose, it’s fun to try!”) to heart—a revelation that may lead to worthwhile storytime discussions. When Blue’s farm animal friends hop into the truck for the ride home, Racer Red tags along and learns a second lesson, one about speed. “Fast is fun, / and slow is too, / as long as you’re / with friends.”
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063387843
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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