A validating, encouraging voice for kids with school-related anxiety.
Henson’s picture book highlights the stresses and benefits of school.
A little girl with auburn hair in a bun, light-colored skin, carrying a schoolbag sits on the school bus fuming: “It repeats EVERY SINGLE DAY! I can think of a million things that don’t have to go to school—so why do we? I don’t want to go to school!” The little, unnamed girl cycles through a list of things that make her anxious about formal education and a few things that avoid such travails. Birds don’t have to put up with bullies, so why should she? Sandcastles don’t have to stand in front of the class and talk, and sunflowers don’t have to take tests and know all the answers. On the other hand, the child reasons, sandcastles “crumble under waves of pressure. The tide washes away their foundations. By going to school, I won’t let an ocean of tears bring me down.” Tran’s watercolor illustrations capture the protagonist’s feelings of nervousness, fear, and confusion, as well as resilience. The prose is poetic at times and avoids condescension, for example, “Fledglings emerge from cracked shells, teach themselves skills to survive” and “Magical masterpieces on the beach mesmerize awe-struck onlookers.” The author shows the very real stressors of school and intersperses these with fun moments of escapism and fantasy, as well as determination, before underscoring the inspiring benefits of education.
A validating, encouraging voice for kids with school-related anxiety.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781738219315
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Tielmour Press
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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
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