Beaver leaves trees half-chewed. His dams leak. He’s always chawing through more trees than he needs for his projects. Once...
Beaver might be busy, but it’s his carelessness that earns him the ire of his erstwhile woodland pals.
Beaver leaves trees half-chewed. His dams leak. He’s always chawing through more trees than he needs for his projects. Once he was thinking so little about his work that he dropped a tree right on Bear’s head. He’s even been so distracted that he chewed Moose’s leg, thinking it was a tree. One day, Beaver becomes the victim of his own lackadaisical work habits when he fails to notice that the tree he’s chewing on is falling in his direction. He wakes immobilized in the hospital with any number of injuries; all he can do is stare at the ceiling. His convalescence allows him to see what he’s wrought with new eyes: His friends are bandaged, the forest is a mess and he’s left a family of birds homeless. Beaver embarks on a rigorous rehabilitation program to see if he can make things right. Canadian artist Oldland returns with a third woodland fable cast in the same cool, earthy palette (Big Bear Hug, 2009, etc.). Fans of Bear and Moose’s tales will find the same understated (and slightly quirky) humor here.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55453-749-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011
Still, preschoolers will likely savor this mouthwatering treatment of a subject that looms large in many early school...
The familiar theme of the challenges facing a new kid in town is given an original treatment by photographer Border in this book of photos of three-dimensional objects in a simple modeled landscape.
Peanut Butter is represented by a slice of white bread spread with the popular condiment. The other characters in the story—a hamburger with a pair of hot dogs in tow, a bowl of alphabet soup, a meatball jumping a rope of spaghetti, a carton of French fries and a pink cupcake—are represented by skillfully crafted models of these foods, anthropomorphized using simple wire construction. Rejected by each character in turn in his search for playmates, Peanut Butter discovers in the end that Jelly is his true match (not Cupcake, as the title suggests), perhaps because she is the only one who looks like him, being a slice of white bread spread with jelly. The friendly foods end up happily playing soccer together. Some parents may have trouble with the unabashedly happy depiction of carbs and American junk food (no carrots or celery sticks in this landscape), and others may find themselves troubled by the implication that friendship across difference is impossible.
Still, preschoolers will likely savor this mouthwatering treatment of a subject that looms large in many early school experiences. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: July 29, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-16773-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
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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