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ME FIRST

Name: ME FIRST
Author: Max Kornell
ISBN: 978-0-399-15997-8

by Max Kornell ; illustrated by Max Kornell ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 2014

As soothing on the eyes as it is, potentially, on the nerves.

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Being first is only fun—if it can be called fun—when it doesn’t entail learning the rude consequences of the unknown.

Kornell’s two donkeys go by the names of Hal and Martha. As brother and sister, they enjoy a good game of one-upmanship. In this case, it’s a relentless, barely bearable, simmering war. They live in a gloriously bucolic setting, as evocative as a woodblock print burnished with the light of sunset, but their competition carries on, even while on a picnic. On a walk home, they take a new route and encounter many new circumstances. Martha races to try the berries first. Yuck! Hal climbs through the hollow log before Martha can and emerges coated in cobwebs for his efforts. Martha jumps on the log bridge spanning a stream and goes for an unexpected swim, in her clothes, when it breaks. There’s nothing quite like learning a lesson the hard way, not to mention that the air is perfumed by their silence as the lesson seeps in. Kornell can’t be said to have exactly a light touch—the message is as subtle as the taste of cobwebs—but if it teaches just one reader not to need to always go one better, it’s brought peace to one small sliver of Earth.

As soothing on the eyes as it is, potentially, on the nerves. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: May 15, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-399-15997-8

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books

Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

- BOOK REVIEW
BEAR WITH ME
by Max Kornell & illustrated by Max Kornell

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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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THE MAGICAL YET

by Angela DiTerlizzi ; illustrated by Lorena Alvarez ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020

A solid if message-driven conversation starter about the hard parts of learning.

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Children realize their dreams one step at a time in this story about growth mindset.

A child crashes and damages a new bicycle on a dark, rainy day. Attempting a wheelie, the novice cyclist falls onto the sidewalk, grimacing, and, having internalized this setback as failure, vows to never ride again but to “walk…forever.” Then the unnamed protagonist happens upon a glowing orb in the forest, a “thought rearranger-er”—a luminous pink fairy called the Magical Yet. This Yet reminds the child of past accomplishments and encourages perseverance. The second-person rhyming couplets remind readers that mistakes are part of learning and that with patience and effort, children can achieve. Readers see the protagonist learn to ride the bike before a flash-forward shows the child as a capable college graduate confidently designing a sleek new bike. This book shines with diversity: racial, ethnic, ability, and gender. The gender-indeterminate protagonist has light brown skin and exuberant curly locks; Amid the bustling secondary cast, one child uses a prosthesis, and another wears hijab. At no point in the text is the Yet defined as a metaphor for a growth mindset; adults reading with younger children will likely need to clarify this abstract lesson. The artwork is powerful and detailed—pay special attention to the endpapers that progress to show the Yet at work.

A solid if message-driven conversation starter about the hard parts of learning. (Picture book. 4-8)