A winsome underdog story, starring a protagonist certain to worm his way into readers’ hearts.
An ambitious invertebrate uses his unique talents to prove himself at his new job.
Reclining in an open book, Worm lets out a sigh—he is bored. Having served as the head librarian for a long time, Worm has read everything in the library, and he is ready for an exciting new career. After trying a handful of jobs that end up being too dangerous for a worm, he comes across a posting for a security guard at the convention center, where inventions have been going missing. The human manager who interviews him is skeptical: “You’re three inches long,” he points out. “Also, you’re a worm.” But Worm makes his case (he’s capable of disguising himself as a hair tie or a pretzel, he can transform “kitchen scraps into valuable fertilizer,” and he’s “extremely stretchy”). Worm is hired! And when he encounters the thief, he’s underestimated yet again, but his creative abilities (and stretchiness) turn out to be useful. Fergus’ tongue-in-cheek dialogue and narration are an ideal match for Hammond’s exaggerated, energetic cartoon artwork; the illustrator wrings maximum humor and pathos from big-eyed, bushy-browed Worm as he persists in the face of failure (time spent in the sun during his turn as a lifeguard leaves him a dried-out mess) and ultimately triumphs. The manager and the thief are pale-skinned; other human characters vary in skin tone.
A winsome underdog story, starring a protagonist certain to worm his way into readers’ hearts. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: May 5, 2026
ISBN: 9781525313165
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
Fun times, fond friends, and a festive farmyard setting—little ones will be charmed.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Toad and Little Blue Truck get ready for a hayride.
After the titular vehicle is loaded with hay, Toad is nowhere to be found. “Beep! Beep! Beep! Where are you, Toad?” asks Little Blue Truck. All the barnyard animals look for him. Sheep searches the meadow. Goose and Duck check the pond. Others pitch in, too, but Toad seems to have disappeared…until Hen hears snoring coming from the pile of hay in the back of Little Blue Truck. Although the text’s scansion is imperfect in places (adults may want to pre-read to ensure a smooth read-aloud), the bouncy meter and rhyming text nevertheless capture the energy of the search and the farmyard community’s concern for Toad’s safety, making this a solid storytime choice. Eye-catching illustrations with rich, fully saturated colors balance the right level of detail while still highlighting the animal that is the focus of each verse. By introducing one farm animal at a time, Schertle also helps the youngest readers begin to identify barnyard animals by name and understand their unique farm homes. Traditional animal sounds are part of the text, and listeners will add them to their vocabulary. It all ends with the promised hayride, bringing the tale to a joyous ending.
Fun times, fond friends, and a festive farmyard setting—little ones will be charmed. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2026
ISBN: 9780063436121
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
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