A picture-perfect tale of self-love and acceptance.
On the eve of picture day, a young Black boy mulls a big decision.
While all the other students have big plans for their hairdos, Jordan isn’t so sure about his own look. He adores his big, soft, cloudlike hair, which “sits on top of [his] head like a crown,” but Grandma, Daddy, and Mama all agree that it might be time for a change. Jordan is reluctant, but Mama is warmly encouraging as the two head to her barbershop, where they meet an assortment of people who vary in gender, complexion, and hairstyle. “I even see my friends from school,” Jordan observes. He contemplates the options (a high top? A cool design shaved into his hair?), but, inspired by seeing the barber giving Mama the perfect cut, Jordan realizes what he wants. With a whisper to the barber, who has a crisply parted flattop, Jordan gets the style of his dreams; Miller builds anticipatory excitement over the next few pages as she eventually reveals Jordan’s look. Now sporting a bow tie, a well-coiffed Afro, and a big grin, Jordan is at last ready for his close-up, alongside a class full of kids with lovely, widely varying ’dos of their own. Illustrations rendered in watercolor and colored pencil with thick black ink outlines on textured paper depict a bright, inviting world where change initially seems daunting but becomes manageable, even rewarding, with the support of friends and family.
A picture-perfect tale of self-love and acceptance. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 19, 2025
ISBN: 9780316592284
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: today
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Wonderful, indeed
A love song to baby with delightful illustrations to boot.
Sweet but not saccharine and singsong but not forced, Martin’s text is one that will invite rereadings as it affirms parental wishes for children while admirably keeping child readers at its heart. The lines that read “This is the first time / There’s ever been you, / So I wonder what wonderful things / You will do” capture the essence of the picture book and are accompanied by a diverse group of babies and toddlers clad in downright adorable outfits. Other spreads include older kids, too, and pictures expand on the open text to visually interpret the myriad possibilities and hopes for the depicted children. For example, a spread reading “Will you learn how to fly / To find the best view?” shows a bespectacled, school-aged girl on a swing soaring through an empty white background. This is just one spread in which Martin’s fearless embrace of the white of the page serves her well. Throughout the book, she maintains a keen balance of layout choices, and surprising details—zebras on the wallpaper behind a father cradling his child, a rock-’n’-roll band of mice paralleling the children’s own band called “The Missing Teeth”—add visual interest and gentle humor. An ideal title for the baby-shower gift bag and for any nursery bookshelf or lap-sit storytime.
Wonderful, indeed . (Picture book. 1-4)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37671-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
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