by Richard Torrey ; illustrated by Richard Torrey ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 5, 2015
Ally is an empathetic guide for young children facing their own first days, no matter what or who they imagine themselves to...
A little girl with a dino-sized imagination joins, and learns to get along with, other kids with their own particular styles on the first day of school.
Ally’s a young girl who knows what she likes: dinosaurs. In fact, her scribbly black-and-white figure is surrounded by crayoned pink spines running down her head and back to her tail, and her feet have pink claws. But will she meet any other dinos at school? “I think you’re going to make a lot of new friends,” her mother reassures her. It takes a while for the other kids’ imaginations to overcome their first-day nervousness, but slowly, their outlines also take on hues and costumes: an astronaut, three princesses, a dragon, a lion, and bespectacled Walter, who loves his new briefcase-shaped lunchbox. Recess is spent acting out these fantasies, and an end-of-the-day trip to the library just may prompt some new adventures for tomorrow. Torrey nicely tackles lots of first-day issues in this imaginative offering—making friends, getting along, keeping an open mind, the everyday routines of kindergarten—and he does so with aplomb. Pastel backgrounds make the multiethnic figures stand out, especially their brightly colored imagined costumes.
Ally is an empathetic guide for young children facing their own first days, no matter what or who they imagine themselves to be. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: May 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4549-1179-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
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by Ryan T. Higgins ; illustrated by Ryan T. Higgins ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 19, 2018
Fans of macabre, tongue-in-cheek humor (and twist endings!) will enjoy time spent with Penelope.
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When a young T. Rex named Penelope starts school, she learns some lessons about her classmates; most importantly, they are not for eating.
Higgins’ starts out as most back-to-school books do: A nervous youngster equipped with an awesome new backpack and hearty lunch worries about her classmates. But then the orange-and-white dino, who’s clad in pink overalls, is taken aback to find that all her classmates are children—the human kind. And “children are delicious,” so she eats them. Mrs. Noodleman forces her to spit them out and reiterates the titular rule. Penelope’s classmates, covered in disgusting spit, express their displeasure with hugely expressive faces and postures. Penelope’s efforts to make friends are unimpressive to the kids (and will have readers in stitches!). A sad and lonely dino trudges home to some advice from her parents, but the temptation the next day is just too great. “Mrs. Noodleman, Penelope ate William Omoto again!” The whole class is afraid of her, except Walter, the goldfish. But when she extends the hand of friendship to him, he gives her a taste of her own medicine, leading to a change of heart and some new friends. Higgins’ illustrations combine scanned textures, graphite, ink, and Photoshop elements, and they feature a wonderfully diverse class that includes a girl in hijab, a tyke in glasses, and a boy wearing a kippah amid classmates of varying skin and hair colors and body types.
Fans of macabre, tongue-in-cheek humor (and twist endings!) will enjoy time spent with Penelope. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: June 19, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-368-00355-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
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by Ryan T. Higgins ; illustrated by Ryan T. Higgins
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by Jonathan Stutzman ; illustrated by Jay Fleck ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.
With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?
Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7033-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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