Funny and anxiety-calming; a well-crafted addition to a helpful picture-book subgenre.
A child’s active imagination demystifies a visit to the dentist.
In the first half of this delightful, reassuring, and informative picture book, a bouncy little girl with an upbeat attitude about her impending dental appointment envisions what it would be like if her dentist turned out to be an animal: “What if I arrive and / I’m greeted with a smile / by a zebra /or a bear / or a giant / crocodile?” Many picture books seek to allay a child’s anxieties about going to a dentist or doctor; this deft mix of verbal humor, amusing illustrations, and dental hygiene tips joins those that are a cut above the rest. In this series opener, Grider, a dental hygienist, offers effervescent rhymes tailored to each animal’s characteristics. (If the dentist were a turtle “green from head to toe! / I’d bring a book to pass the time. / A turtle’s always slow.”) Morrison’s polished acrylic images of animals and diverse humans contribute charm and winsome energy. After the girl imagines a menagerie (including an octopus, a kangaroo, a fish, a lion, a dinosaur, and a frog), she reassures readers that dentists are “someone just like you and me.” She lists her dentist’s advice for healthy teeth: regular brushing and flossing, good nutrition, and checkups. The work ends with a dental-themed puzzle page, a page for drawing, and weekly charts for keeping track of flossing and brushing.
Funny and anxiety-calming; a well-crafted addition to a helpful picture-book subgenre.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73215-680-7
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Red Bow Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Good clean fun for fans of this long-running franchise.
The Crayon crew, having happily starred in more than two dozen books, now cleans up.
As the Crayons grab inner tubes and rubber duckies and prepare for bathtime, Daywalt keeps the laughs coming. Adult readers will be tickled by the many grown-up references: Prince’s “Purple Rain” and Gene Kelly’s “Singin’ in the Rain,” Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. But there’s plenty for younger readers: Esteban (“Pea Green” is crossed out and corrected on his label) wears a cape and snorkel as he perches on a bathtub faucet (later, he’ll sport the cape while playing pirate with Neon Red); a big Green shields the eyes of a small Green who is excitedly pointing to the spectacle of a naked (i.e., label-less) pale tan crayon; alongside Mermaid Purple, Starfish Orange, and Sea Turtle Green, a chunky My First Crayon offers an uplifting bit of wisdom about kindness. Some Crayons see bathtime as an opportunity to party, while others prefer to shower, but “they all have a splash”—interestingly, while wearing their labels. Jeffers again contributes his reliably droll crayon sketches, minimalist but with pleasing extras like a purple octopus popping up among the bathers.
Good clean fun for fans of this long-running franchise. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
ISBN: 9780593694879
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
