(Mostly) totally awkward fun.
The team behind Awkward Family Photos (2010) unveils a playfully cringeworthy collection of kid-centered photos submitted to their website, celebrating the idea that “everything and everyone is awkward.”
The opening text orients readers to the creators’ construction of the word awkward: “It’s kind of a silly word. But all it really means is that everything isn’t always perfect.” Ensuing double-page spreads juxtapose sedate, run-of-the-mill photos on the verso with, well, awkward corresponding images on the recto. Readers may laugh at the candid shots (or may worry a bit), many of which could be stills from an America’s Funniest Home Videos episode. Take, for example, pages that show how even sleeping can be awkward: an Asian child sleeps serenely on a bed made up with flowered sheets on the verso, while a white child with blond ringlets sits in a decidedly awkward pose on the floor, leaning face-first against table legs on the recto. As for "everyone"? A verso image of an interracial Asian and white couple with their biracial kids is a sweet family portrait; meanwhile, on the recto, a photo of a black family shows “AWKWARD” parents smooching their adorable—and thoroughly aghast—baby on either cheek. The closing text assures readers that life is made interesting by its awkward moments as it encourages individuality and playfulness.
(Mostly) totally awkward fun. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-54984-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
As insubstantial as hot air.
A diverse cast of children first makes a fleet of hot air balloons and then takes to the sky in them.
Lifestyle maven Gaines uses this activity as a platform to celebrate diversity in learning and working styles. Some people like to work together; others prefer a solo process. Some take pains to plan extensively; others know exactly what they want and jump right in. Some apply science; others demonstrate artistic prowess. But “see how beautiful it can be when / our differences share the same sky?” Double-page spreads leading up to this moment of liftoff are laid out such that rhyming abcb quatrains typically contain one or two opposing concepts: “Some of us are teachers / and share what we know. / But all of us are learners. / Together is how we grow!” In the accompanying illustration, a bespectacled, Asian-presenting child at a blackboard lectures the other children on “balloon safety.” Gaines’ text has the ring of sincerity, but the sentiment is hardly an original one, and her verse frequently sacrifices scansion for rhyme. Sometimes it abandons both: “We may not look / or work or think the same, / but we all have an / important part to play.” Swaney’s delicate, pastel-hued illustrations do little to expand on the text, but they are pretty. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.2-by-18.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 70.7% of actual size.)
As insubstantial as hot air. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4003-1423-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tommy Nelson
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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