Bursts of color and gentle messages combine for a message of hope and healing.
The author of the bestselling The Invisible String (2000) offers young readers tools for coping with unhappiness.
Jackson is usually an upbeat kid—unless his classmates are mean to him or he sees something upsetting on the news. But when his best friend moves and his pet hamster dies, Jackson’s mood flags. In the realistic digital illustrations, Jackson is surrounded by puffs of color; as he becomes sadder, the vibrant hues disappear, replaced by a dismal gray. Jackson’s parents take him to the school counselor, who suggests Jackson attempt to find one color each day “and think about how it makes you feel.” The next day, Jackson visits the seashore, beautifully illustrated in eye-catching blues, and the “twirling, whirling dance of sea and spray” fills him with calm and confidence. Equally luscious images of an orange sunset, a hike through a verdant forest, and a patch of brilliant sunflowers, paired with Karst’s quietly bolstering text, show Jackson’s joy returning—even more brightly than before. He even ignores the mean kids at school. The last color Jackson reclaims is purple, symbolizing his gratitude and the knowledge that joy may fade but will always return if he watches for it. Backmatter includes an author’s note and an afterword from a family therapist with helpful explanations and additional suggestions. Jackson and his family are tan-skinned; his counselor presents Black.
Bursts of color and gentle messages combine for a message of hope and healing. (resources) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780316572040
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
Wild and wacky.
A picture book from the comedy duo known as Rhett & Link, creators of the online juggernaut Good Mythical Morning.
Lumo is obsessed with chicken fingers; Saffy, who is new to town and anxious about starting school, finds comfort in the only food she likes: buttered spaghetti. The night before the first day of school, a thunderstorm rages, and each kid makes a wish—“to have chicken fingers at school,” in Lumo’s case; Saffy wishes for “the first thing off the top of her head: buttered spaghetti.” File under “Be careful what you wish for.” Lumo’s and Saffy’s respective physical changes (chicken fingers for fingers, spaghetti for hair) make navigating school a challenge but bring them together in the cafeteria, where they enjoy some new foods—and their new friendship. The plotting could have been sharper: Why do the kids’ bodies suddenly return to normal? And couldn’t the authors have thought up a less old-hat story-ending punch line? Nevertheless, McLaughlin and Neal get by on their charm, and the plot sets up some funny visuals. Salcedo’s cartoony Photoshop art features well-chosen artifacts from a typical kid’s life and captures the mortification of not fitting in, which will be familiar even to readers who have never experienced breaded fingers or noodle hair. Lumo is brown-skinned and dark-haired; Saffy is pale-skinned with disheveled reddish-brown hair.
Wild and wacky. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 16, 2026
ISBN: 9780063474154
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperPop/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
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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