bookshelf

GLORIA'S BIG PROBLEM

Name: GLORIA'S BIG PROBLEM
Author: Sarah Stiles Bright
ISBN: 978-0-88448-739-5

by Sarah Stiles Bright ; illustrated by Mike Deas ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 7, 2020

Sensitive and emotionally realistic.

bookshelf

Gloria’s capital-P Problem hounds her with worries and makes her feel small.

Gloria Marvel loves to sing, and, in the privacy of her home, she’s expressive and exuberant. But her Problem’s bellow drowns her out if she tries to sing in public. Deas depicts Gloria’s ever present Problem as a large, hairy, green-striped, troll-like monster with polka-dot shorts. No one else can see Gloria’s Problem, and when she tries to talk about it, people either dismiss or ridicule her. She really wants to audition for a play at the community theater, but her Problem howls in her ear so she can’t think. It makes Gloria so mad that she finally yells at it to “STOP!” The Problem immediately shrinks, and, though it’s still present, she auditions with confidence. Brown-skinned Gloria goes to church and lives in a multiethnic neighborhood. Pages are text heavy, but the illustrations, in watercolor shades and heavy, inked lines, encapsulate the scene essentials. The book accurately depicts the way that anxiety often makes some outlandish what-ifs seem very probable and small things seem just as devastating. It also makes the case for Gloria’s family and friends to treat her needs seriously, and it emphasizes that although she sometimes feels “bonkers,” she definitely isn’t. In the collection of books that conceptualize mental conditions, this one respects the afflicted protagonist and politely insists that others should as well.

Sensitive and emotionally realistic. (Picture book. 6-9)

Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-88448-739-5

Page Count: 36

Publisher: Tilbury House

Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

bookshelf

THE TREE AND ME

From the Bea Garcia series , Vol. 4

by Deborah Zemke ; illustrated by Deborah Zemke ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 14, 2019

A funny and timely primer for budding activists.

bookshelf

Problems are afoot at Emily Dickinson Elementary School, and it’s up to Bea Garcia to gather the troops and fight.

Bea Garcia and her best friend, Judith Einstein, sit every day under the 250-year-old oak tree in their schoolyard and imagine a face in its trunk. They name it “Emily” after their favorite American poet. Bea loves to draw both real and imagined pictures of their favorite place—the squirrels in the tree, the branches that reach for the sky, the view from the canopy even though she’s never climbed that high. Until the day a problem boy does climb that high, pelting the kids with acorns and then getting stuck. Bert causes such a scene that the school board declares Emily a nuisance and decides to chop it down. Bea and Einstein rally their friends with environmental facts, poetry, and artwork to try to convince the adults in their lives to change their minds. Bea must enlist Bert if she wants her plan to succeed. Can she use her imagination and Bert’s love of monsters to get him in line? In Bea’s fourth outing, Zemke gently encourages her protagonist to grow from an artist into an activist. Her energy and passion spill from both her narration and her frequent cartoons, which humorously extend the text. Spanish-speaking Bea’s Latinx, Einstein and Bert present white, and their classmates are diverse.

A funny and timely primer for budding activists. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 6-9)

Pub Date: May 14, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-7352-2941-9

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: March 16, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE CASE OF THE BAD APPLES
by Robin Newman ; illustrated by Deborah Zemke

- BOOK REVIEW
THE ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY NO PRINCESSES BOOK
by Ian Lendler ; illustrated by Deborah Zemke

- BOOK REVIEW
TALE OF A SCAREDY-DOG
by Deborah Zemke ; illustrated by Deborah Zemke

bookshelf

WAITING IS NOT EASY!

From the Elephant & Piggie series

by Mo Willems ; illustrated by Mo Willems ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 4, 2014

A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends

bookshelf

Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”

When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.

A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)