An educational but accessible picture book about how to cope with grief as a child.
A child deals with the loss of his grandfather in this picture book from Bader.
Nine-year-old Sam loves to spend his Saturdays with Gramps: And who wouldn’t, when Gramps greets you with a stack of big, fluffy pancakes to start the day? Sam and Gramps engage in fun activities together, like playing chess, gardening, eating turkey sandwiches, and birdwatching. Yet as the weeks pass, Sam notices Gramps becoming increasingly tired and unable to keep up. One Saturday, Sam’s mom comes into his room with bad news. “When people reach the end of their lives, their bodies start to slow down—like when your toys run out of batteries.” Sadly, Gramps has died, which devastates Sam, and he now must find a way to both honor his relative’s memory and work through his own grief. With his mom’s help, he learns how to remember his love for Gramps and keep it alive. Bader’s fourth picture book, following Petunia the Perfectionist (2024), this simple narrative should be an effective guide for young readers experiencing a death in their own family. Through Sam’s perspective, the author outlines clear steps for coping with loss: like keeping up old habits and understanding complicated emotions. Beykzadeh’s illustrations confusingly make Sam look younger than 9 but do include a thoughtful cardinal that first appears when Sam and Gramps birdwatch and follows Sam into his mourning period.
An educational but accessible picture book about how to cope with grief as a child.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9798985768190
Page Count: 32
Publisher: M. Bader Media
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers.
Two little rats decide to show the world how tough they are, with unpredictable results.
Louie and Ralphie Ratso want to be just like their single dad, Big Lou: tough! They know that “tough” means doing mean things to other animals, like stealing Chad Badgerton’s hat. Chad Badgerton is a big badger, so taking that hat from him proves that Louie and Ralphie are just as tough as they want to be. However, it turns out that Louie and Ralphie have just done a good deed instead of a bad one: Chad Badgerton had taken that hat from little Tiny Crawley, a mouse, so when Tiny reclaims it, they are celebrated for goodness rather than toughness. Sadly, every attempt Louie and Ralphie make at doing mean things somehow turns nice. What’s a little boy rat supposed to do to be tough? Plus, they worry about what their dad will say when he finds out how good they’ve been. But wait! Maybe their dad has some other ideas? LaReau keeps the action high and completely appropriate for readers embarking on chapter books. Each of the first six chapters features a new, failed attempt by Louie and Ralphie to be mean, and the final, seventh chapter resolves everything nicely. The humor springs from their foiled efforts and their reactions to their failures. Myers’ sprightly grayscale drawings capture action and characters and add humorous details, such as the Ratsos’ “unwelcome” mat.
A nicely inventive little morality “tail” for newly independent readers. (Fiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7636-0
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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