by Orbie ; illustrated by Orbie ; translated by Karen Li ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 2019
There’s some fun here, and readers will recognize that “hanging around” has taken on a new, unexpected meaning.
What’s it like to literally hang around?
Five-year-old Reggie knows. The tot is stranded in midair in the middle of Mom’s clothesline while single-handedly clutching a knot in the middle of the line. Yanking said knot while skipping downstairs from the apartment is a ritual: Reggie likes the knot’s sound when it’s snapped. Today, having slipped on the stairs, Reggie’s hand becomes entangled in the knot; struggling comically pushes Reggie into the clothesline’s center. Reggie’s other hand enfolds coins earned by doing chores. Reggie doesn’t want to drop the money, but the kid is also terrified of falling. Mom’s inside wearing large earphones, so yelling for her does no good. Eventually the coins and Reggie plummet to the pavement. Fortunately, Reggie sustains only dirty hands, with which the sniffling child quickly retrieves the coins and buys candy. By the following week, Reggie’s learned the lesson about that pesky knot. This quirky Canadian import, translated from French, has Reggie narrating in first person in a dryly witty, self-aware tone. However, when Reggie realizes the fall wasn’t so bad, the tension and fun end abruptly, and the story becomes a letdown. The child-appealing, expressive illustrations feature lots of white space, focusing attention on Reggie’s plight. Characters present white.
There’s some fun here, and readers will recognize that “hanging around” has taken on a new, unexpected meaning. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77147-390-3
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016
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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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
by Hoda Kotb ; illustrated by Chloe Dominique ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024
Pleasant enough but not particularly original.
Uplifting messages of positivity from the Today show anchor.
Hope springs eternal, so the saying goes. Kotb agrees, here delivering to children the cheery news that hope lives inside all of them and that whatever they might wish for can be theirs. All they need is a sunny outlook, and the possibilities for happy outcomes are virtually endless. Children’s dreams can be in-the-moment ones—like purple ice cream with whipped cream and a cherry—or more far-ranging ones, such as growing tall enough to reach that high shelf easily or for hair that’s long enough to braid. It doesn’t matter, the author reassures young readers. Your aspirations will be realized, so don’t give up on them—just keep believing in them and, most of all, in yourself. Throughout, Kotb calls hope a rainbow, a feeling, a gift, and a wish. Hope is “new friends you’ll find— / friends who are loving and funny and kind.” Hope is “practicing your heart out, letter by letter.” The book’s overarching theme is upbeat, but its bouncy rhyming text is clumsy. The child-appealing illustrations are colorful and lively, though they have a generic look. The cast of wide-eyed characters is racially diverse; some have visible disabilities.
Pleasant enough but not particularly original. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780593624128
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flamingo Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
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by Hoda Kotb ; illustrated by Suzie Mason
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