An emotionally honest and lovingly rendered take on the highs and lows of friendship.
The protagonist of Summer Is for Cousins! (2023) encounters further ups and downs as school starts.
Ravi loves autumn and the fresh beginning it represents. This year, the students will be making paper trees; every time they do something new, they’ll adorn their tree with a leaf. Ravi’s classroom is in an unfamiliar part of the school, and the young protagonist tries out new instruments in music class—all reasons to add leaves. When new girl Ellie offers Ravi and BFF Joe a bite of her beet salad at lunch, it’s another opportunity for a leaf, but Ravi’s not so sure. The well-meaning but overbearing Ellie comes on strong (“I told you we’d be best friends!”), and Ravi’s resistant. It all comes to a head on costume day. Ellie shows up dressed as sprinkles—to complement Ravi’s and Joe’s ice cream and cone getups—and Ravi explodes in anger. But Ravi’s big sister Anita, who knows what it’s like to deal with an initially unwelcome interloper, offers some wise words, and Ravi eventually mends fences with Ellie. LaRocca’s story is well paced and realistic, eschewing drawn-out conversations for actions that speak far louder; this happy ending is well earned. Alwar’s scribbly illustrations brim with chaotic, humorous details that add a perfectly calibrated lightness to the earnest text. Ravi is of South Asian descent, Joe is pale-skinned, and Ellie is brown-skinned.
An emotionally honest and lovingly rendered take on the highs and lows of friendship. (Picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9781419777400
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 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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