Don’t boop this book away! Embrace this lively, creative look at asserting one’s boundaries.
Don’t touch that anemone!
A “lemony…anonymous anemone” has just one demand: “Please, oh, please, / DON’T / BOOP / ME!” The accompanying illustrations show the sea anemone recoiling when a purple fish enthusiastically nuzzles it. The anemone is an avatar for a brown-skinned child who tells readers, “If you ever feel, like me, / that you’d prefer / to stay boop-free / just say these words / assertively— // NO / BOOPING / ME! I / AM / AN ANENOME!” Despite their pleas, both anemone and child delight in community and celebration, dancing along with their peers as everyone respects their need for space. This ingenious story doubles as a scientific portrait of an animal with a fun-sounding name and a lesson on setting boundaries. Vail’s rhythmic, rhyming text has a playfulness to it that will propel readers forward, making it an ideal candidate for a vibrant, educational read-aloud. Raschka’s clever art uses paint and embroidery on burlap to create an expressive world full of textures and colors. A spread featuring the unfortunate “boop” depicts numerous silent sea anemones in visible distress in an explosion of stitching, packing as much punch as the one featuring the child making a vehement exclamation. Backmatter includes an author’s note in which Vail discusses her own (misguided) experiences with anemones as well as information on these fascinating sea creatures.
Don’t boop this book away! Embrace this lively, creative look at asserting one’s boundaries. (photograph) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9780063414723
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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