A joyous celebration of supportive learning environments.
A language-loving boy with a lisp wins his school spelling bee in this autobiographical picture book from Sean and Moses Powe.
Sean Moses, a cheerful Black boy attending a predominantly Black primary school, has an unusual and distinctive way of speaking: “He makes ‘S’ sounds / in such a way, / he sounds just like a snake, / some say.” Sean’s classmates are mostly accepting of this difference. The school is about to hold its spelling bee, and all of the kids are excited to participate. On stage, Sean announces the start of the competition, and while his ‘s’ sounds provoke laughter from the audience of schoolkids, this is a good-natured response rather than anything spiteful. Sean wins the trophy—to much applause—and nobody mocks or begrudges him: “The other children smiled, / and said quietly, / ‘Sean Moses is no different, / from you or me.’” Sean is embraced by his parents, and the three of them drive off into the sunset. The authors tell Sean’s story via non-metered rhymed text, rendered in a friendly bold font and positioned (mostly unobtrusively) in the blank spaces of Kaplan’s two-page-spread digital illustrations. The pictures capture, in a number of ways, the inherent wonder and enthusiasm of preteen kids in a nurturing school environment, highlighting the students’ expressions, their simple, colorful clothes, the hazy, high-spirited atmosphere of the auditorium, and the vibrant swirls that surround Sean whenever he speaks. One slightly distracting element is how Kaplan favors disproportionately large heads when emphasizing how young the kids are, especially when depicting Sean. However, this doesn’t detract overmuch from what is, at heart, a positive and empowering story. The book concludes with an 8-page photo album of young Sean at the actual spelling bee, along with a list of resources for parents of children needing help with their speech development.
A joyous celebration of supportive learning environments.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781735180373
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Fatherless Fathers Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2025
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
Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings.
The Crayons head back to class in this latest series entry.
Daywalt’s expository text lays out the basics as various Crayons wave goodbye to the beach, choose a first-day outfit, greet old friends, and make new ones. As in previous outings, the perennially droll illustrations and hand-lettered Crayon-speak drive the humor. The ever wrapperless Peach, opining, “What am I going to wear?” surveys three options: top hat and tails, a chef’s toque and apron, and a Santa suit. New friends Chunky Toddler Crayon (who’s missing a bite-sized bit of their blue point) and Husky Toddler Crayon speculate excitedly on their common last name: “I wonder if we’re related!” White Crayon, all but disappearing against the page’s copious white space, sits cross-legged reading a copy of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man. And Yellow and Orange, notable for their previous existential argument about the color of the sun, find agreement in science class: Jupiter, clearly, is yellow AND orange. Everybody’s excited about art class—“Even if they make a mess. Actually…ESPECIALLY if they make a mess!” Here, a spread of crayoned doodles of butterflies, hearts, and stars is followed by one with fulsome scribbles. Fans of previous outings will spot cameos from Glow in the Dark and yellow-caped Esteban (the Crayon formerly known as Pea Green). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 9780593621110
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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