Sure to be a favorite no matter what season readers are welcoming.
A cyclical dream of seasons to come.
Originally written in Norwegian, this story in verse follows the four seasons as they each in turn emerge from their slumber to change the landscape of a village and a nearby field with an apple tree. With each passing season, a different child is depicted nestled into the larger landscape asleep. As the year progresses, a pair of young children with pale skin and straight dark hair play and interact with the tree, but the real stars of the book are the seasons, each emerging with a vibrant design from various locations near the tree. Spring, a pale young boy with grassy hair, slumbers underground, emerging to dance around the town, a cloud of pollen surrounding him. Summer, a dark-skinned girl with hair made up of multicolored daisies, swings with joy after awakening in a flower bud. After snoozing inside an apple, a middle-aged, pale-skinned Autumn trails falling leaves from her flowing mane of auburn locks as she walks through the countryside, and an elderly, pale-skinned Winter, wrapped in coats and scarves, surveys the town after snoozing against the trunk under a toadstool. Readers of all ages will happily study the painterly illustrations for seasons to come, and the verse creates a soothing lullaby perfect for a nap at any time of the year. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Sure to be a favorite no matter what season readers are welcoming. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64690-023-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Arctis Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
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
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Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees.
After Duncan finds his crayons gone—yet again—letters arrive, detailing their adventures in friendship.
Eleven crayons send missives from their chosen spots throughout Duncan’s home (and one from his classroom). Red enjoys the thrill of extinguishing “pretend fires” with Duncan’s toy firetruck. White, so often dismissed as invisible, finds a new calling subbing in for the missing queen on the black-and-white chessboard. “Now everyone ALWAYS SEES ME!…(Well, half the time!)” Pink’s living the dream as a pastry chef helming the Breezy Bake Oven, “baking everything from little cupcakes…to…OTHER little cupcakes!” Teal, who’s hitched a ride to school in Duncan’s backpack, meets the crayons in the boy’s desk and writes, “Guess what? I HAVE A TWIN! How come you never told me?” Duncan wants to see his crayons and “meet their new friends.” A culminating dinner party assembles the crayons and their many guests: a table tennis ball, dog biscuits, a well-loved teddy bear, and more. The premise—personified crayons, away and back again—is well-trammeled territory by now, after over a dozen books and spinoffs, and Jeffers once more delivers his signature cartooning and hand-lettering. Though the pages lack the laugh-out-loud sight gags and side-splittingly funny asides of previous outings, readers—especially fans of the crayons’ previous outings—will enjoy checking in on their pals.
Quirky, familiar fun for series devotees. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593622360
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
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BOOK REVIEW
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