Not quite off the charts but offbeat enough for a lot of fun.
A young chart enthusiast finds one that tests her abilities.
Uma loves charts. She tabulates her family’s favorite pizza toppings (using a pie chart, of course); she examines which couples hold hands most often in the park (dogs are the outliers, because they don’t have hands); and she carefully creates her own food pyramid (with chicken fingers at the base). As Uma says: “A good chart should make you see the world in a new way.” When her teacher announces that the students’ next assignment is to make charts of their homes, Uma is ecstatic. But then, she gets nervous. “How can I chart something so big, so important, so complicated?!” She is stumped. She narrows her research down to one essential question: “What makes my house…housey?” Her family members offer many possibilities. But their thoughts only overwhelm Uma even more. How can she possibly make a chart that shows feelings and smells and sounds? Uma, master chart maker, must find a way. Uma’s hand-drawn charts of all kinds are scattered throughout, and various pictorial guides are explained on the endpapers. Readers will delight in looking closely and learning more about Uma’s quirky hobby. Uma’s family of six share the same light tan skin tone while her class (and male teacher of color) is racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 22.5% of actual size.)
Not quite off the charts but offbeat enough for a lot of fun. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-18118-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Anne Schwartz/Random
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
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
Menacing and most likely to appeal to established fans of its co-creators.
Existing artwork from an artistic giant inspires a fairy-tale reimagination by a master of the horror genre.
In King’s interpretation of a classic Brothers Grimm story, which accompanies set and costume designs that the late Sendak created for a 1997 production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera, siblings Hansel and Gretel survive abandonment in the woods and an evil witch’s plot to gobble them up before finding their “happily ever after” alongside their father. Prose with the reassuring cadence of an old-timey tale, paired with Sendak’s instantly recognizable artwork, will lull readers before capitalizing on these creators’ knack for injecting darkness into seemingly safe spaces. Gaping faces loom in crevices of rocks and trees, and a gloomy palette of muted greens and ocher amplify the story’s foreboding tone, while King never sugarcoats the peach-skinned children’s peril. Branches with “clutching fingers” hide “the awful enchanted house” of a “child-stealing witch,” all portrayed in an eclectic mix of spot and full-bleed images. Featuring insults that might strike some as harsh (“idiot,” “fool”), the lengthy, dense text may try young readers’ patience, and the often overwhelmingly ominous mood feels more pitched to adults—particularly those familiar with King and Sendak—but an introduction acknowledges grandparents as a likely audience, and nostalgia may prompt leniency over an occasional disconnect between words and art.
Menacing and most likely to appeal to established fans of its co-creators. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9780062644695
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
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