This maybe-fantastical story of a child’s burgeoning independence rewards the open-minded and the keen-eyed.
In this Swedish import, a youngster’s imagination (or is it reality?) leads to quite the summer adventure.
The story begins with a pale-skinned mother and child at an outdoor swimming spot. With Mom’s prompting, the child puts on a life jacket, then sets off in an inflatable boat while Mom is gabbing with another parent. The protagonist floats through a jungle, observed by children who seem to live in the trees, winds through a town in which citizens apparently don’t notice the little one (although the jungle children, who have followed along, do), and plunges down a waterfall. The jungle kids rescue the little one and shepherd the child back to the swimming spot, where Mom’s still yakking. Has any time elapsed? It’s all very Where the Wild Things Are, although the illustrations, which resemble impressionistic, ultra-saturated watercolors, are uniquely Lundberg’s. The story is wordless throughout the pages in which the child is out of Mom’s sight line; the mother-and-child dialogues before and after the adventure are the book’s only text—and the story’s emotional core. So, was the journey all in the youngster’s mind? It seems likely, and yet an object that looks like a souvenir of the little one’s travels suggests otherwise.
This maybe-fantastical story of a child’s burgeoning independence rewards the open-minded and the keen-eyed. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9781644215241
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Triangle Square Books for Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A flavorful call to action sure to spur young introverts.
In this latest slice in the Food Group series, Humble Pie learns to stand up to a busy friend who’s taking advantage of his pal’s hard work on the sidelines.
Jake the Cake and Humble Pie are good friends. Where Pie is content to toil in the background, Jake happily shines in the spotlight. Alert readers will notice that Pie’s always right there, too, getting A-pluses and skiing expertly just behind—while also doing the support work that keeps every school and social project humming. “Fact: Nobody notices pie when there’s cake nearby!” When the two friends pair up for a science project, things begin well. But when the overcommitted Jake makes excuse after excuse, showing up late or not at all, a panicked Pie realizes that they won’t finish in time. When Jake finally shows up on the night before the project’s due, Pie courageously confronts him. “And for once, I wasn’t going to sugarcoat it.” The friends talk it out and collaborate through the night for the project’s successful presentation in class the next day. John and Oswald’s winning recipe—plentiful puns and delightful visual jokes—has yielded another treat here. The narration does skew didactic as it wraps up: “There’s nothing wrong with having a tough conversation, asking for help, or making sure you’re being treated fairly.” But it’s all good fun, in service of some gentle lessons about social-emotional development.
A flavorful call to action sure to spur young introverts. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780063469730
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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