A fine work with a caring message and appealing illustrations.
Hayes’ picture book shows readers that it’s okay to have unique sensory needs.
Under no circumstances does Quincy like getting his feet wet. This is unusual for little ducks like him, and swans and geese that live at Dragonfly Pond cruelly mock him, asking if he’ll ever swim and why he cries. However, he also has a few friends that encourage him to come swimming with them. Quincy can’t express exactly what he hates about the feeling of wet feet. He tries to wear bright purple flip flops into the water, but they float away; next, Quincy tries wearing a snorkel mask and flippers, but pond water leaks through the holes. He again tries to join his friends for an aquatic adventure by wearing galoshes, but they’re not tall enough to keep water off his feet. Finally, Quincy decides to wear waders, which keep his feet nice and dry, and his friends surprise him by wearing waders of their own. Other ducks jump into the pond with Quincy, celebrating the fact that he feels comfortable enough to swim around the pond. When swans and geese appear to make fun of Quincy again, his friends help him ignore them and celebrate that Quincy persevered to find a solution to his sensory needs: The entire story is appealingly written in rhyming couplets with first-person narration from Quincy himself: “It took a few tries / To make this work,” he tells his friends. “Thank you for seeing / Beyond my quirk.” Dutton’s full-color cartoon illustrations are absolutely charming, and the textured background shading is a lovely touch. The story subtly integrates a clear message about accepting people who have specific sensory needs, and it’s one that young readers will easily understand, whether or not they have sensitivities of their own. Quincy also effectively models determination throughout with a daily mindful mantra: “Today’s a new day. / My friends are here.”
A fine work with a caring message and appealing illustrations.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781737754923
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A flavorful call to action sure to spur young introverts.
In this latest slice in the Food Group series, Humble Pie learns to stand up to a busy friend who’s taking advantage of his pal’s hard work on the sidelines.
Jake the Cake and Humble Pie are good friends. Where Pie is content to toil in the background, Jake happily shines in the spotlight. Alert readers will notice that Pie’s always right there, too, getting A-pluses and skiing expertly just behind—while also doing the support work that keeps every school and social project humming. “Fact: Nobody notices pie when there’s cake nearby!” When the two friends pair up for a science project, things begin well. But when the overcommitted Jake makes excuse after excuse, showing up late or not at all, a panicked Pie realizes that they won’t finish in time. When Jake finally shows up on the night before the project’s due, Pie courageously confronts him. “And for once, I wasn’t going to sugarcoat it.” The friends talk it out and collaborate through the night for the project’s successful presentation in class the next day. John and Oswald’s winning recipe—plentiful puns and delightful visual jokes—has yielded another treat here. The narration does skew didactic as it wraps up: “There’s nothing wrong with having a tough conversation, asking for help, or making sure you’re being treated fairly.” But it’s all good fun, in service of some gentle lessons about social-emotional development.
A flavorful call to action sure to spur young introverts. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780063469730
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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