Gracefully makes a difficult task feel all the more manageable.
“A good apology doesn’t have a but.”
Sallie Bee loves the cute clay hedgehog that’s part of classmate Leo’s “When I Grow Up” project. Unfortunately, she slips, falls, and drops the hedgehog; it breaks into pieces, and Leo is crushed. Sallie Bee wants to make Leo feel better, but a lackluster apology (“I’m sorry…but someone left their pencil on the floor! It wasn’t my fault!”), renewed offers of friendship, and even a knock-knock joke and a snickerdoodle all fall flat. It’s only when Sallie Bee receives an inadequate apology from her brother that she begins to understand, with help from her mother, how to truly make it up to Leo. Sallie Bee then practices in front of a mirror and gathers her courage the next day to successfully apologize. Light touches of humor ease Sallie Bee’s learning curve, and her rehearsal gently models children’s social development. While younger students might not understand the concept of a career day, all will relate to accidentally damaging a classmate’s project, the need to apologize, and how difficult making amends can be. Backmatter includes a letter from the authors with clear tips for making an apology as well as the full text of Sallie Bee’s whispered knock-knock joke. Sallie Bee and her family are light-skinned and brown-haired; her classroom is racially diverse.
Gracefully makes a difficult task feel all the more manageable. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: June 23, 2026
ISBN: 9781419783012
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2026
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
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