An informative offering that is both appropriately accessible and comprehensive.
A pictorial guide for fostering future firefighters.
With a friendly “welcome!” the book ushers young readers into their training as fledgling firefighters. They are shown what is expected of them physically, from general exercises like running or pullups to more specific tasks such as climbing stairs with a weighted vest or dragging a hose long distances. McCarthy includes diagrams and simple explanations of personal protective equipment like axes, helmets, and self-contained breathing apparatus facepieces and cylinders as well as cutaways of rescue vehicles showing where these materials are stored. Also shown are types of firefighters and descriptions of related professionals like paramedics. McCarthy’s trademark bright and lovely painted illustrations are clear and expressive. The text clearly addresses its readers as “you,” asking questions along the way, bringing them into the book in a way that works well read aloud or independently. Aftermatter consists of an author interview with a (white, older, male) firefighter and questions for him from children and a smattering of websites to find additional information. Young firefighting aficionados looking to self-identify will find lots to work with here, as persons of multiple races and gender identities are shown.
An informative offering that is both appropriately accessible and comprehensive. (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-1733-5
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40.
From two Nobel Peace Prize winners, an invitation to look past sadness and loneliness to the joy that surrounds us.
Bobbing in the wake of 2016’s heavyweight Book of Joy (2016), this brief but buoyant address to young readers offers an earnest insight: “If you just focus on the thing that is making / you sad, then the sadness is all you see. / But if you look around, you will / see that joy is everywhere.” López expands the simply delivered proposal in fresh and lyrical ways—beginning with paired scenes of the authors as solitary children growing up in very different circumstances on (as they put it) “opposite sides of the world,” then meeting as young friends bonded by streams of rainbow bunting and going on to share their exuberantly hued joy with a group of dancers diverse in terms of age, race, culture, and locale while urging readers to do the same. Though on the whole this comes off as a bit bland (the banter and hilarity that characterized the authors’ recorded interchanges are absent here) and their advice just to look away from the sad things may seem facile in view of what too many children are inescapably faced with, still, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the world more qualified to deliver such a message than these two. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-48423-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
Caregivers may find this useful as a starting point, but this brand-new title already feels dated.
This “First Talk About Online Safety” focuses on interpersonal relationships.
Roberts, a child psychologist, explains social media, personal boundaries, and cyberbullying. Simple, cloying language in the primary narrative contrasts with more sophisticated sidebars, which define terms such as “inappropriate” (inadequately) and “crowdfunding” (well enough). Full-color illustrations and photographs show a multiracial cast of children looking concernedly at smartphones, bathing in the glow of a laptop, or gathering around a tablet. In an apparent attempt to avoid alarming children, the text sacrifices cleareyed communication for vague moralizing. Immediately, readers discover “there are things on the Internet that are not very good,” and while “Most people post things that are interesting or nice to see…sometimes people use the Internet to say unkind things or behave in ways that are inappropriate or mean.” On the subject of boundaries, children learn that “When people on the Internet share too much private information about themselves or someone else, the ones who see it often feel really uncomfortable.” A prescriptive explanation about “Online Friends vs. Real-Life Friends” doesn’t acknowledge differing realities of online friendship and support, and the closing pivots from serious (“Thinking about this stuff makes me kind of uncomfortable and angry”) to optimistic (“How can I use the Internet in a way that will be good for me and others?”) and borders on melodrama.
Caregivers may find this useful as a starting point, but this brand-new title already feels dated. (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Feb. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4598-2094-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
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