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FIONA'S LITTLE LIE

Name: FIONA'S LITTLE LIE
Author: Rosemary Wells
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7312-3

From the Felix & Fiona series

by Rosemary Wells ; illustrated by Rosemary Wells ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 13, 2016

A gently humorous take on being honest and learning to admit when you’re wrong.

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How can you un-tell a lie?

Furry friends Felix and Fiona are back again, this time to learn more about friendship, telling the truth, and taking responsibility for mistakes. Fiona is supposed to be Felix’s birthday elf and bring cupcakes to school, but even though her teacher gives her a note, she completely forgets. Rather than disappoint her friend, she invents a tale in which she accuses the second-grade Terrible Three of snarfing down the cupcakes and gobbling them up like vampires. Miss B immediately goes to fetch the supposed perps. Felix isn’t angry though; he realizes that Fiona isn’t telling the truth and tries to figure out a way to help her out of the whole mess. Wells’ lovable guinea pigs are rendered in watercolor and pencil with just the right amount of detail, including a natty green suit for second-grade teacher Mr. Bumpershock. While perhaps not Wells’ most outstanding work, this selection is still notable for its subtlety, humor, and warmth as well as its pitch-perfect depiction of childhood hopes and fears. And though Fiona comes clean to the relief of all, it just may be Fiona’s mother (and her cooking skills) who saves the day in the end.

A gently humorous take on being honest and learning to admit when you’re wrong. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-7636-7312-3

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Candlewick

Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE NIGHT BEFORE KINDERGARTEN
by Rosemary Wells ; illustrated by Rosemary Wells

- BOOK REVIEW
IF YOU BELIEVE IN ME
by Rosemary Wells ; illustrated by Rosemary Wells

- BOOK REVIEW
LITTLE BUNNY, BIG GERMS
by Rosemary Wells ; illustrated by Rosemary Wells

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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)