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EASTER ELF

Name: EASTER ELF
Author: Rochelle Ann Groskreutz
ISBN: 978-0-9991437-7-3

by Rochelle Ann Groskreutz ; illustrated by Leah DiPasquale ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2019

The overall effect of this story is similar to eating too much Easter candy—sweet at the moment but not nourishing.

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One of Santa’s elves joins the Easter Bunny’s elves, who are busy at their spring-training camp perfecting techniques for assisting the Easter Bunny.

Narrator Easter Elf is one of many who are practicing weaving baskets and shredding grass when one of Santa’s elves on a reindeer-training flight crash-lands at the camp. Easter Elf shows Christmas Elf around the camp, where she succeeds at the Easter-prep activities with the sort of annoying, stereotypical showoff behavior often seen in strong fictional female characters. However, she finds she can’t stand the smell or taste of eggs and appears to vomit in a patch of purple grass. The story is told through speech balloons and commands from the camp loudspeaker that include lots of puns, many of which are likely over the heads of the intended audience. Digitally created illustrations in candy-bright colors use multiple spot illustrations layered with speech balloons for an overall frenetic visual effect that is rather dizzying. The elves have the look of cartoon characters, and the narrative has the sort of fast-paced, exclamatory dialogue and quickly shifting settings seen in animated television series. Easter Elf has glasses, light skin, and turquoise hair. The other Easter elves have hair in different pastel shades, and two have brown skin. Christmas Elf has intriguing candy-cane–striped hair in a long braid and brown skin.

The overall effect of this story is similar to eating too much Easter candy—sweet at the moment but not nourishing. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 1, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-9991437-7-3

Page Count: 40

Publisher: KWiL Publishing

Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS

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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
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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RUBY FINDS A WORRY

From the Big Bright Feelings series

by Tom Percival ; illustrated by Tom Percival ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019

A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their...

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Ruby is an adventurous and happy child until the day she discovers a Worry.

Ruby barely sees the Worry—depicted as a blob of yellow with a frowny unibrow—at first, but as it hovers, the more she notices it and the larger it grows. The longer Ruby is affected by this Worry, the fewer colors appear on the page. Though she tries not to pay attention to the Worry, which no one else can see, ignoring it prevents her from enjoying the things that she once loved. Her constant anxiety about the Worry causes the bright yellow blob to crowd Ruby’s everyday life, which by this point is nearly all washes of gray and white. But at the playground, Ruby sees a boy sitting on a bench with a growing sky-blue Worry of his own. When she invites the boy to talk, his Worry begins to shrink—and when Ruby talks about her own Worry, it also grows smaller. By the book’s conclusion, Ruby learns to control her Worry by talking about what worries her, a priceless lesson for any child—or adult—conveyed in a beautifully child-friendly manner. Ruby presents black, with hair in cornrows and two big afro-puff pigtails, while the boy has pale skin and spiky black hair.

A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their feelings (. (Picture book. 4-6)