Welcome proof that seasons may come and go, but friendship is forever.
Friendship can be found in the most unexpected places.
Iris, a dark blue swallow with a bright yellow chest, is the first to arrive at the forest every spring after her flock’s winter migration. As the wind signals cooler weather, the birds start preparing for their annual flight. Curious Iris asks, “What happens to the forest when we leave?” No one knows, so she decides to stay during the frigid season. With the emergence of a sudden snowstorm, Iris is ill prepared for this change and falls asleep in a snowdrift. Thankfully, a helpful squirrel named Sam rescues her from a cruel fate and takes her to his humble arboreal abode, where they keep warm and bond. Another year passes, and Iris decides to join her flock in their yearly winter exodus. Sam is sad yet knows that Iris must go. When Iris returns the following spring, she eagerly reunites with her forever friend; he hitches a ride on her back as they soar over their beloved forest. This is a lovely story of having the courage to stray from the crowd, chart one’s own path, and cherish the friendships made along the way. The text, translated from French, scans nicely and complements the blocky geometric patterns of the vibrant illustrations, showcasing the cool harshness of winter and the colorful emergence of spring.
Welcome proof that seasons may come and go, but friendship is forever. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9781778400865
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Greystone Kids
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories.
Kids know vegetables can be scary, but rarely are edible roots out to get someone. In this whimsical mock-horror tale, carrots nearly frighten the whiskers off Jasper Rabbit, an interloper at Crackenhopper Field.
Jasper loves carrots, especially those “free for the taking.” He pulls some in the morning, yanks out a few in the afternoon, and comes again at night to rip out more. Reynolds builds delicious suspense with succinct language that allows understatements to be fully exploited in Brown’s hilarious illustrations. The cartoon pictures, executed in pencil and then digitally colored, are in various shades of gray and serve as a perfectly gloomy backdrop for the vegetables’ eerie orange on each page. “Jasper couldn’t get enough carrots … / … until they started following him.” The plot intensifies as Jasper not only begins to hear the veggies nearby, but also begins to see them everywhere. Initially, young readers will wonder if this is all a product of Jasper’s imagination. Was it a few snarling carrots or just some bathing items peeking out from behind the shower curtain? The ending truly satisfies both readers and the book’s characters alike. And a lesson on greed goes down like honey instead of a forkful of spinach.
Serve this superbly designed title to all who relish slightly scary stories. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0297-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
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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