A gentle, kid-friendly study on genes that doesn’t skimp on educational heft.
In Boyer’s debut picture book, a young boy explains how genes—and gene mutations—define our physical characteristics and make everyone special.
The first-person narrator is a light-skinned young boy with prominent rosy cheeks and a sunny outlook on life. He relates to readers how genes create a unique blueprint inside each person and ultimately determine our physical traits, including curly or straight hair, the shape of a smile, and one’s general stature. The boy also talks of gene mutations (defined afterward in a glossary of relevant terms) and explains his own rare condition: “Sometimes I wonder who I’ll be, / and if the world has room for me. / But then I remember what I always knew: / Rare doesn’t mean wrong— / it just means few.” He notes that superheroes, too, obtain their powers from mutations and asserts that all differences should be embraced. The boy then plays alongside an equally vivacious brown-skinned girl who, like him, shines from within through a heart-shaped emblem on her chest. The author narrates by way of unmetered rhyming couplets, which are accessible and a good way to convey the book’s core message. The book doesn’t include examples of nonfictional gene mutations, and the exact nature of the boy’s condition is neither stated in the text nor obvious from Piwowarski’s dreamy two-page-spread digital illustrations, which instead feature pastel backdrops and a kind of hazy, holistic optimism.
A gentle, kid-friendly study on genes that doesn’t skimp on educational heft.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2026
ISBN: 9798993195902
Page Count: 42
Publisher: Yuni Press
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.
Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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