A useful starting point for an interesting discussion with preschoolers and elementary school students on head coverings,...
What are you wearing on your head?
This board book is an introduction to traditional religious head coverings from different faiths. “Many religious people share the custom of covering their heads to show their love for God,” it opens. Each page presents an illustrated portrait of a person from a particular religion, faith, or culture wearing their head covering. The painterly portraits show people of varied skin tones, eye colors, and hair colors and are religiously accurate—the South Asian Muslim man wearing a topi has a full beard, and the young Jewish boy wearing the kippah has long sidelocks. The spare text includes the name of the head covering, its phonetic pronunciation, and the faith/culture where it is often worn. “This is a Patka (Putt-kah), / which many Sikh boys wear.” It celebrates Sikh, Muslim, Jewish, Rastafarian, and Christian head coverings. There are other words that can be used for the same head coverings that are not mentioned (yarmulke for kippah, dupatta for chunni), and some of the pronunciations may be suspect (tou-pi or toh-pi? choon-ee or choon-nee?). Despite this, it is a book in which global kids can see themselves and others, a mirror as well as a window. With no real context supplied, this serves as just an introduction.
A useful starting point for an interesting discussion with preschoolers and elementary school students on head coverings, faith, and respect in our diverse world. (Board book. 3-7)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9576364-7-7
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
Clear, age-appropriate, and durable—the best way to get a young coder started—without screen time.
Coding principles are gamified with tabs and flaps.
Topic by topic in double-page spreads, this book tackles the fundamental concepts and logic of computer programing, with playful interactions that vary appropriately. The game for “decomposing,” an essential skill, has durable flaps with answers for questions posed about what steps are needed for a task. The “algorithm” spread explains the way computers interpret commands with comical illustrations of what happens when there are missing steps or insufficient detail. A cupcake-making machine with flaps that reveal whether a part in the illustration is functioning or buggy explains “debugging,” and so on. Each interaction suits its given topic remarkably well. An IF- and ELSE-statement explains conditionals with a treasure-hunt flap game that has surprising replayability. In the variables game, the book’s most complicated, readers time themselves counting up objects worth different point values via a spinning wheel and lift a tab to see if they were correct. Throughout, “Code Word” sidebars and other explanations are provided by pixelated humans of all genders and skin tones, and the game art is a bubbly cartoon style.
Clear, age-appropriate, and durable—the best way to get a young coder started—without screen time. (glossary, index) (Informational novelty. 3-7)Pub Date: July 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4654-5973-2
Page Count: 24
Publisher: DK Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
A nice addition to the series.
A retelling of the well-known Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale with a Russian setting.
The Once Upon a World series travels the globe setting familiar Western fairy tales in different locales. This latest addition to the series is set in Russia and tells the story of the “lonely young prince who wanted to fall in love” and of his parents’ insistence that the bride-to-be be a princess. After traveling far and wide and meeting many princesses who are not right for him, the prince returns home, disappointed. One rainy evening, a wet and cold, dark-haired princess appears at the castle door. Refreshingly, the prince and princess fall in love not because they are a prince and princess but because they have talked and found they have much in common: they have traveled widely, explored the same places, and had adventures. Mirtalipova’s illustrations have a pleasing folksy feel, many pages decorated with pretty flowery borders. One double-page spread of the princess being taken care of by a host of servants is particularly appealing. (With the exception of one brown-skinned princess, all the characters are white.) Though the text has been simplified and the presentation is in board-book format, the intended audience is not the toddler set. And the prince and princess? As with the traditional telling, the princess passes the pea test and they live happily ever after.
A nice addition to the series. (Board book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5344-0019-1
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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