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YOU CAN SIT WITH ME

Name: YOU CAN SIT WITH ME
Author: Rachel Tawil Kenyon
ISBN: 9781250891143

by Rachel Tawil Kenyon ; illustrated by Tatiana Kamshilina ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 3, 2025

Kindness 101.

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The new kid on the block weathers ups and downs with guidance from a compassionate classmate.

A light-skinned family—made up of two parents and two kids—unpacks their car in a suburban neighborhood. As one of the children gazes over uncertainly, a brown-skinned, bespectacled youngster sits on a nearby doorstep and waves: “If you need a friend, you can sit with me.” Smoothly rhyming text narrated by the brown-skinned neighbor describes a variety of disheartening experiences: nearly missing the bus, having nowhere to sit at lunch, and struggling academically. But the narrator is there to help: “When the group is leaving you out, / you may just want to shout! / You can sit with me.” Young readers will happily chime in as the child delivers the titular refrain each time. The youngster exhibits caring behaviors that go well beyond saving a seat, from sharing an umbrella on a rainy day to inviting the newcomer to a study session—activities shown to make the classroom a more welcoming place for all. Kamshilina’s artwork builds on Kenyon’s verse as the new kid slowly grows in confidence; it all culminates with the newcomer (a dinosaur lover) and the narrator throwing a dino-themed party attended by all their classmates. The simply drawn, endearing characters are diverse in skin tone and hair color.

Kindness 101. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: June 3, 2025

ISBN: 9781250891143

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
YOU KNOW HOW TO LOVE
by Rachel Tawil Kenyon ; illustrated by Mary Lundquist

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LOVE FROM THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 2015

Safe to creep on by.

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Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.

In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.

Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE FOOD?
edited by Eric Carle

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE BUG?
edited by Eric Carle

- BOOK REVIEW
MY FIRST I SEE YOU
by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

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...

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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)