A worthwhile but uneven tale about building self-confidence.
In this debut picture book, a girl learns to turn a downward spiral into a chance to boost her self-esteem.
Kimmy is an elementary schooler with a self-confidence problem. When her teacher Miss Jones declares that the class will spend the day writing poetry, Kimmy thinks: “Kimmy can’t, Kimmy can’t, Kimmy can’t.” Later, the same thing happens when Kimmy’s gym teacher takes everybody through a lesson on cartwheels. Kimmy watches as all her classmates make their attempts and seemingly succeed. But when she tries, she falls and gets caught in her negative thought cycle once again. After Miss Jones announces that it’s time for a math flash-card exercise, Kimmy is too afraid to even attempt it. Miss Jones finally approaches her and asks her a single question that turns Kimmy’s whole worldview on its head. From then on, Kimmy is inspired to believe in herself and be more confident than ever before. Heath’s tale is somewhat less inspired than Kimmy herself, as its core lesson is valuable but its text and plot are rather sparse. The story moves quickly and lacks detailed descriptions. Yet its pivotal moment will prove a useful tool for people of all ages to have in their arsenals when confronted with low self-esteem issues. Hatton’s simple illustrations feature a diverse cast with a variety of skin tones. Unfortunately, the pictures confusingly include a yellow cat in attendance at Kimmy’s classes, with no explanation in the text or images.
A worthwhile but uneven tale about building self-confidence. (Picture book for ages 3-4)Pub Date: June 29, 2023
ISBN: 9781838757335
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Nightingale Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions.
Ellis, known for her illustrations for Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series, here riffs on the concept of “home.”
Shifting among homes mundane and speculative, contemporary and not, Ellis begins and ends with views of her own home and a peek into her studio. She highlights palaces and mansions, but she also takes readers to animal homes and a certain famously folkloric shoe (whose iconic Old Woman manages a passel of multiethnic kids absorbed in daring games). One spread showcases “some folks” who “live on the road”; a band unloads its tour bus in front of a theater marquee. Ellis’ compelling ink and gouache paintings, in a palette of blue-grays, sepia and brick red, depict scenes ranging from mythical, underwater Atlantis to a distant moonscape. Another spread, depicting a garden and large building under connected, transparent domes, invites readers to wonder: “Who in the world lives here? / And why?” (Earth is seen as a distant blue marble.) Some of Ellis’ chosen depictions, oddly juxtaposed and stripped of any historical or cultural context due to the stylized design and spare text, become stereotypical. “Some homes are boats. / Some homes are wigwams.” A sailing ship’s crew seems poised to land near a trio of men clad in breechcloths—otherwise unidentified and unremarked upon.
Visually accomplished but marred by stereotypical cultural depictions. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6529-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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