by Sam Zuppardi ; illustrated by Sam Zuppardi ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 26, 2016
Ideal antidote for anxious kids facing their own Worries.
A boy’s fear of playing his trumpet at his first concert nearly overwhelms him until he confides in his mother.
Jack loves playing his trumpet and looks forward to his “first-ever concert,” but on concert day he wakes with a Worry. Jack tries hiding under his blanket and his bed, but his Worry follows him. With his Worry in tow, Jack can’t enjoy the special breakfast his mother has made. He runs around the yard and plays his trumpet, but his Worry remains. Eventually, a distraught Jack confesses he doesn’t want to go to the concert because he’s afraid of making a mistake and his mother won’t love him anymore. When she assures him she’ll love him even if he plays “every note wrong,” all ends on a high note. Whimsical pencil-and-acrylic illustrations use swift, sketchy lines and color washes to visually take Jack from confident anticipation to debilitating fear. Before his Worry arrives, Jack appears center-page, self-assuredly playing his trumpet with notes joyously swirling across the page. Then Jack’s Worry appears, first as a small, somewhat-innocuous, blue-green blob, quickly morphing into a large, dark, ominous, overshadowing presence, sapping Jack’s confidence. However, once Jack confronts his Worry, it shrinks, leaving him smiling and empowered. Jack and his mom are white, but his friends and orchestra-mates are nicely diverse.
Ideal antidote for anxious kids facing their own Worries. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-7845-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
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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...
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
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by Hoda Kotb ; illustrated by Chloe Dominique ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2024
Pleasant enough but not particularly original.
Uplifting messages of positivity from the Today show anchor.
Hope springs eternal, so the saying goes. Kotb agrees, here delivering to children the cheery news that hope lives inside all of them and that whatever they might wish for can be theirs. All they need is a sunny outlook, and the possibilities for happy outcomes are virtually endless. Children’s dreams can be in-the-moment ones—like purple ice cream with whipped cream and a cherry—or more far-ranging ones, such as growing tall enough to reach that high shelf easily or for hair that’s long enough to braid. It doesn’t matter, the author reassures young readers. Your aspirations will be realized, so don’t give up on them—just keep believing in them and, most of all, in yourself. Throughout, Kotb calls hope a rainbow, a feeling, a gift, and a wish. Hope is “new friends you’ll find— / friends who are loving and funny and kind.” Hope is “practicing your heart out, letter by letter.” The book’s overarching theme is upbeat, but its bouncy rhyming text is clumsy. The child-appealing illustrations are colorful and lively, though they have a generic look. The cast of wide-eyed characters is racially diverse; some have visible disabilities.
Pleasant enough but not particularly original. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9780593624128
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Flamingo Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
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