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THE DRESS IN THE WINDOW

Name: THE DRESS IN THE WINDOW
Author: Robert Tregoning
ISBN: 9781947888463

by Robert Tregoning ; illustrated by Pippa Curnick ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024

Sweet and uplifting, though clumsily told.

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A boy saves his money to buy the perfect red sequined dress from the secondhand store.

The boy sees the dress in the shop window and immediately begins to fantasize about the life it had before. He starts doing odd jobs for the neighbors to save up for it, but by the time he goes to buy it, it’s gone. Little does he know that his mom has a birthday surprise for him. The rhyming text reads well for the most part, though there are a few clunky moments. The words and bright illustrations depict the boy’s growing excitement, but the pacing and storytelling drag. Many pages are spent describing the jobs he does and the various neighbors, who are named and reappear as guests at his birthday party. The protagonist, however, is unnamed, apparently to make sure that readers never forget that he is, in fact, a boy. The scene in which the boy discovers that the dress is gone shows him looking crushed, yet the very next page shows him smiling and serving tea, which deflates the most emotional moment of the story. With one more page turn, however, the problem is solved; then there are two spreads of the boy frolicking in his dress. The boy and his mother are light-skinned; his community is a diverse one.

Sweet and uplifting, though clumsily told. (Picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: March 5, 2024

ISBN: 9781947888463

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Flyaway Books

Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
OUT OF THE BLUE
by Robert Tregoning ; illustrated by Stef Murphy

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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)

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
A PERFECT PLACE TO PLAY
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Jim Valeri

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

by Marilyn Sadler ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2024

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.

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A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.

Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)