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PRINCESSES OF BREAD

Name: PRINCESSES OF BREAD
Author: She Shil Kim
ISBN: 978-1-939248-13-8

From the TanTan Math Story series

by She Shil Kim ; illustrated by Eun Hwa Jung ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 2018

“A” for effort and good intentions, but the execution leaves much to be desired.

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Fairy tale meets math lesson in this unconventional picture book.

The Queen of Bread bakes delicious loaves of bread that are famous throughout the land. Unfortunately, when she tries to teach her three daughters her craft, none are interested. One day, the queen falls ill and begs her daughters to bake bread in her place. However, since they didn’t pay attention to the queen’s lessons, they have no clue what measurements to use. The breads come out of the oven “tasteless and ugly.” Soon, the neighboring kingdoms refuse to buy their bread anymore, and the entire Bread Kingdom grows poor. The princesses are full of regret. Then lo and behold, their Fairy Godmother appears, giving them a book filled with recipes that teach them to measure with a ruler, a measuring cup, and a scale. Once they put their new skills to use, they are able to save the kingdom and their mother. With the stakes confined to loaves of bread, the tale struggles to rise, and the dark, somber colors and unpolished illustrations are hardly appealing. The story’s teaching mission overwhelms it, interrupting the narrative with preachy sidebars, and the backmatter is a treatise on the importance of measuring tools and math exercises. The characters in this Korean import have pale skin and straight, black hair.

“A” for effort and good intentions, but the execution leaves much to be desired. (Picture book. 4-9)

Pub Date: April 1, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-939248-13-8

Page Count: 38

Publisher: TanTan

Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS

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LITTLE DAYMOND LEARNS TO EARN

by Daymond John ; illustrated by Nicole Miles ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2023

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.

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How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!

John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)

Pub Date: March 21, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

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...

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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)