A comforting characterization of eternity with luminescent, detailed images.
A child asks what will happen after his father dies and receives a transcendent, comforting answer in Finn’s picture book.
At bedtime, a youngster asks, “Daddy, will you live forever?” His father promises to take care of his health, so that he can be present, in person, with the child as long as possible. He acknowledges, though, that “there will be a day when it seems like I’m not around. / But all you have to do is look, and I’ll be found.” Comparing his future presence to a game of hide and seek, the father suggests that he’ll be anywhere the child is: as a star at night, or the sun during the day, or the path that leads the child onward. Artists Prajogo and Bastian beautifully depict the father and child in various picturesque locations, leaning toward outdoor nature scenes. The faces, especially the child’s, are round and sweet, with large, expressive eyes. Although the illustrations are generally realistic in style, they’re also full of whimsy, as when the child imagines hang gliding, evoking earlier images of a butterfly and cardinal. Finn’s rhyming couplets are strong, with stretch words (tethered, essential) that make this book a good one for youngsters and parents to experience together—echoing the book’s overarching message.
A comforting characterization of eternity with luminescent, detailed images.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9798891383470
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Mascot Kids
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026
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
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