Storytimers and newly independent readers alike will enjoy this trio’s continuing adventures.
The bear, the moose and the beaver might be friends, but they can’t agree on anything!
One nice, sunny day, the three friends decide to go for a canoe trip down the river. All of them want to steer—and that tips the canoe, and they all end up in the water. A game of “Eenie-Meenie-Minie-Moe” puts the moose in the stern, but they all insist on paddling on the same side of the canoe. They’re so stubborn that they just circle for a long time. It’s only when they get tired that they start switching sides and move forward. When they come to a beaver dam, no one can agree on how to get over the blockage. Once over the dam (the bear’s idea to portage wins out), the trip goes smoothly…until the bickering starts. They’re yelling so loudly that they don’t hear the waterfall, and that strands them on a rock in the middle of the river. They argue well into the night. It’s not until the next morning that it dawns on the friends that they’ll never get to shore unless they work together. Canadian author/illustrator Oldland’s fourth Life in the Wild picture book features all three of his blocky cartoon woodland characters in a fine tale of friendship and cooperation. Gentle humor, both visual and textual, make this an easy and not preachy lesson.
Storytimers and newly independent readers alike will enjoy this trio’s continuing adventures. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-894786-32-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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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