An uplifting and beautifully illustrated celebration of cultural and religious similarities and differences.
A young child explores love and faith in this picture book.
A child says, “I come to earth to fill many hearts with love.” The kid shares experiences of comfort and joy, especially from mom and dad. The child explains that people of all cultures participate in positive activities: “Some friends wear different kinds of clothes than I wear, / But they still play and pray.” And despite religious and cultural differences, everyone expresses love, especially toward family members. The youngster also emphasizes the diverse ways that people practice religion. (“Some cover their heads, some bow, and some kneel.”) But the child concludes that ultimately people are united and that “it’s about how we show love each moment of each day.” One of the final illustrations portrays a group of children of various ethnicities looking toward a vibrant blue sky. The book’s images depict followers of religions that include Islam and Orthodox Judaism. Some of the language features a Christian perspective (“For you Holy Spirit, shining down from above... / We feel your peace... / I know the Love of heaven”). Taylor’s upbeat message underscoring respect and unity is laudable and inspiring. Duarte’s bright and intricate illustrations are wonderful. The charming images depict people around the world with assorted skin colors. All ages are shown celebrating, eating, and enjoying time with family and friends. Many wear traditional or regional garments, such as wooden shoes.
An uplifting and beautifully illustrated celebration of cultural and religious similarities and differences.Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-982210-82-3
Page Count: 26
Publisher: BalboaPress
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
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