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AGNES'S PLACE

Name: AGNES'S PLACE
Author: Marit Larsen
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2675-8

by Marit Larsen ; illustrated by Jenny Løvlie ; translated by Kari Dickson ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2021

A love letter to new friendships and apartment living.

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A new resident changes the comforting rhythm of life in a young girl’s apartment.

Five-year-old Agnes knows absolutely everything about the inhabitants of her bustling apartment building. She’s attuned to the smallest sounds and slightest smells that tell her what someone is baking, building, cleaning, or celebrating. Then Agnes’ perfectly orderly world is turned upside down when Anna moves into the building. Agnes loves the idea of a new friend, but what if Anna doesn’t want to be friends? What if Anna’s presence means Agnes becomes less important in her world? Translated from Norwegian, the third-person narration is compelling and understandable for American audiences while visual cultural markers are glimpsed here and there. The complexity of Agnes’ emotions is communicated with small details in her here and now. With the exception of a couple small storytelling hiccups (readers will wonder why Anna never reaches out to Agnes), the text and illustrations work in tandem to bring the magic of apartment living and new friendship to life. Shapes, lines, and colors create movement and a strong visual throughline, helping readers’ eyes navigate detailed illustrations full of the messy, vibrant elements of life. Patterns and textures add another layer of cozy charm. Agnes is depicted with black hair and light brown skin while Anna has pale skin and blond hair. The apartment residents appear mostly White with the exception of one Black neighbor. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 73.8% of actual size.)

A love letter to new friendships and apartment living. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 1, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-5420-2675-8

Page Count: 44

Publisher: Amazon Crossing Kids

Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021

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)