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HOLD

Name: HOLD
Author: Randy Ribay
ISBN: 9780593856987

by Randy Ribay ; illustrated by Zeke Peña ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 21, 2026

Delightfully tender.

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A game between father and child goes from silly to sweet.

The two are on their way out the door, Daddy’s arms filled with items. Daddy stops and, offering a water bottle, shares a simple request: “Hold, please.” The tot grabs the bottle and asks to hold more. “Hold Speedy?” The stuffed sloth is followed in quick succession by a toy dino and the family’s startled gato. (That last draws a sigh from Daddy that will resonate with frazzled parents the world over.) But the fun’s just begun. Arms full of treasures, the child calls for the seemingly impossible. “Hold tree?” Concise and spirited, Ribay’s structurally simple text mines a range of vibes from page to page as each request gets bolder and sillier. Similar in scope, Peña’s richly lined artwork centers father and child against unembellished backgrounds, zeroing in on distinct facial expressions and firm body movement to elicit humor and affection. Utterly enchanted, the youngster asks to hold rain, a plane flying overhead, and a truck rumbling down the street. Then, Daddy gets an idea. Back at home, he carefully places miniature replicas of what’s possible (sans rain, natch) into the child’s arms. Soon enough, his little one learns that too much stuff can be hard to hold, but holding on to Daddy is always easy. Father and child are cued Latine.

Delightfully tender. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: April 21, 2026

ISBN: 9780593856987

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Kokila

Review Posted Online: Dec. 26, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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EVERYTHING WE NEVER HAD
by Randy Ribay

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PATRON SAINTS OF NOTHING
by Randy Ribay

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AFTER THE SHOT DROPS
by Randy Ribay

- PERSPECTIVES
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SPAGHETTI HEAD & CHICKEN FINGERS

by Rhett McLaughlin & Link Neal ; illustrated by Erica Salcedo ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2026

Wild and wacky.

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A picture book from the comedy duo known as Rhett & Link, creators of the online juggernaut Good Mythical Morning.

Lumo is obsessed with chicken fingers; Saffy, who is new to town and anxious about starting school, finds comfort in the only food she likes: buttered spaghetti. The night before the first day of school, a thunderstorm rages, and each kid makes a wish—“to have chicken fingers at school,” in Lumo’s case; Saffy wishes for “the first thing off the top of her head: buttered spaghetti.” File under “Be careful what you wish for.” Lumo’s and Saffy’s respective physical changes (chicken fingers for fingers, spaghetti for hair) make navigating school a challenge but bring them together in the cafeteria, where they enjoy some new foods—and their new friendship. The plotting could have been sharper: Why do the kids’ bodies suddenly return to normal? And couldn’t the authors have thought up a less old-hat story-ending punch line? Nevertheless, McLaughlin and Neal get by on their charm, and the plot sets up some funny visuals. Salcedo’s cartoony Photoshop art features well-chosen artifacts from a typical kid’s life and captures the mortification of not fitting in, which will be familiar even to readers who have never experienced breaded fingers or noodle hair. Lumo is brown-skinned and dark-haired; Saffy is pale-skinned with disheveled reddish-brown hair.

Wild and wacky. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: June 16, 2026

ISBN: 9780063474154

Page Count: 32

Publisher: HarperPop/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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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)