A well-meaning but anodyne look at food insecurity.
In Senator Warnock’s latest picture book, a magical lunchbox helps a young Black child learn lessons about sharing.
For the fourth time this week, Leo’s mother has packed him a baloney sandwich for lunch. “For now, it’s all we can afford,” she tells him. The ridicule he faces at school because of it—especially from big-mouthed bullies like Pete—leaves an even worse taste in his mouth. Full-color, digital brushstrokes illustrate a racially diverse school that unfortunately suffers from widespread food insecurity. Leo’s family is struggling, but so is his classmate Andy, who brings just bread and butter for his lunch. Leo’s literal prayers are soon answered by his mother’s new job and by the glowing secondhand lunchbox she gives him. At school the next day, the lunchbox gives way to a reimagined biblical parable. Just as Jesus multiplied loaves of bread and fish, Leo’s admirable instincts to share every slice of pizza, orange, and drop of juice that appears from his lunchbox are rewarded as the food mysteriously replicates. All the kids (including Andy and Pete) are fed by not just the supernatural feat, but also by Leo’s kindness. While many will appreciate the biblical allusion, this earnest exploration of child hunger feels ill-conceived. Many readers will be put off by the resolution, which seems to suggest that positive thoughts and children’s willingness to share are enough to solve a systemic issue like this one. Andy and Pete present white.
A well-meaning but anodyne look at food insecurity. (note to readers) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780593691526
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
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
BOOK REVIEW
As insubstantial as hot air.
A diverse cast of children first makes a fleet of hot air balloons and then takes to the sky in them.
Lifestyle maven Gaines uses this activity as a platform to celebrate diversity in learning and working styles. Some people like to work together; others prefer a solo process. Some take pains to plan extensively; others know exactly what they want and jump right in. Some apply science; others demonstrate artistic prowess. But “see how beautiful it can be when / our differences share the same sky?” Double-page spreads leading up to this moment of liftoff are laid out such that rhyming abcb quatrains typically contain one or two opposing concepts: “Some of us are teachers / and share what we know. / But all of us are learners. / Together is how we grow!” In the accompanying illustration, a bespectacled, Asian-presenting child at a blackboard lectures the other children on “balloon safety.” Gaines’ text has the ring of sincerity, but the sentiment is hardly an original one, and her verse frequently sacrifices scansion for rhyme. Sometimes it abandons both: “We may not look / or work or think the same, / but we all have an / important part to play.” Swaney’s delicate, pastel-hued illustrations do little to expand on the text, but they are pretty. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.2-by-18.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 70.7% of actual size.)
As insubstantial as hot air. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4003-1423-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tommy Nelson
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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