Whimsical and thoughtful.
A child who uses a motorized wheelchair loses a beloved figurine.
The nameless narrator can’t stand uncomfortable hats, thick coats, stiff boots, and cold wind. The youngster especially dislikes new places. But today the child must endure all these things: Mom and the protagonist are going to watch ice sculptors building in the park. The unimpressed narrator doesn’t see the point of making sculptures that will ultimately melt. Worse, the child loses a comforting horse figurine. Reluctant to revisit the park the next night without it, the child is now more confident: “I know the way, so it’s okay.” And visiting the completed sculptures, from whale to goldfish, feels magical; the cold and the crowds “melt away.” Then, in a moment of serendipity, the narrator spies the horse figurine beneath an ice foal’s feet, cementing the child’s newfound appreciation. As seasons pass and another winter nears, the narrator dreams of icy creatures and smiles as a cold wind blows outside. The narrator realizes that though the sculptures melted, they “never went away. Not entirely.” In rhythmic text, Kurpiel gently demonstrates that ephemeral moments should be treasured and that venturing outside one’s comfort zones can be richly rewarding. Fluid illustrations clearly convey the narrator’s emotions; eye-catching blue and white hues immerse readers in the wintry atmosphere. The narrator and Mom have skin the white of the page; background characters are racially diverse.
Whimsical and thoughtful. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9780593697658
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Rocky Pond Books/Penguin
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
Wild and wacky.
A picture book from the comedy duo known as Rhett & Link, creators of the online juggernaut Good Mythical Morning.
Lumo is obsessed with chicken fingers; Saffy, who is new to town and anxious about starting school, finds comfort in the only food she likes: buttered spaghetti. The night before the first day of school, a thunderstorm rages, and each kid makes a wish—“to have chicken fingers at school,” in Lumo’s case; Saffy wishes for “the first thing off the top of her head: buttered spaghetti.” File under “Be careful what you wish for.” Lumo’s and Saffy’s respective physical changes (chicken fingers for fingers, spaghetti for hair) make navigating school a challenge but bring them together in the cafeteria, where they enjoy some new foods—and their new friendship. The plotting could have been sharper: Why do the kids’ bodies suddenly return to normal? And couldn’t the authors have thought up a less old-hat story-ending punch line? Nevertheless, McLaughlin and Neal get by on their charm, and the plot sets up some funny visuals. Salcedo’s cartoony Photoshop art features well-chosen artifacts from a typical kid’s life and captures the mortification of not fitting in, which will be familiar even to readers who have never experienced breaded fingers or noodle hair. Lumo is brown-skinned and dark-haired; Saffy is pale-skinned with disheveled reddish-brown hair.
Wild and wacky. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 16, 2026
ISBN: 9780063474154
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperPop/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
