Magical and message-driven but slightly off the mark.
A fairy stops granting wishes that don’t align with her traditional values.
Light-skinned and pink-clad Rose has been granting wishes as “the pink fairy” for thousands of years—almost as long as she’s been alive. But when children start asking Rose for things that don’t conform to gender norms, Rose is perplexed. She won’t let “a pretty little girl” be a rugby player or “a handsome little boy” be a dancer. Instead, she just flies off with a “Goodness me!” leaving the children confused and upset. Their wishes go unfulfilled. Despite intervention from her fairy friends, Rose refuses to grant wishes, and her behavior becomes even odder as she begins to menacingly chase the kids. The children start to fear the pink fairy instead of looking forward to her visits. Surprising herself, Rose realizes that her true passion is scaring children and that she wants to be an ogre instead. She begs the fairy queen to make it so. This unique fairy tale—translated from Spanish—sparkles with its message that "hurt people hurt people." Some may be perturbed, however, that Rose is ultimately rewarded for her harmful actions rather than held accountable (though many of the kids seem to enjoy the scares). Nonetheless, Orecchia’s colorful, textured art creates a magical and inviting world. The children and fairy friends alike are racially diverse. Some have multicolored outfits, too—a nice visual representation of open-mindedness against Rose’s monochrome look.
Magical and message-driven but slightly off the mark. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9788419607904
Page Count: 40
Publisher: NubeOcho
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones.
Not even the arrival of autumn can cool down this impetuous squirrel.
Although Squirrel is skeptical about Bird’s vegetable patch (“Nothing is HAPPENING!”), Bird does produce five (count them) lovely pumpkins. Squirrel picks out a favorite: “The enormous orange one.” Bird hints that Squirrel might want to help out; Squirrel sets out to fetch some work gloves and returns to find only four pumpkins. The frequently distracted Squirrel notices more gourds disappearing and leaps to the conclusion that a thief is near. And where’s Bird?! Has Squirrel’s pal also been taken? Diligently detecting, Squirrel finds clues—peck marks, footprints, and more—and produces a sketch of the suspect. As readers will guess, each clue turns out to point to one of Squirrel and Bird’s friends. Turns out Bird was delivering pumpkins to their pals while saving the big one to give to “my very best friend,” Squirrel. But why does Squirrel haul it up a tree? “So the Pumpkin Thief can’t find it, of course!” A page of pumpkin facts provides the learning component common to all titles in this series. Once more, readers will enjoy the pleasure of prediction and repetition, Squirrel’s silly persistence, Bird’s generosity, and the vibrant color illustrations, balancing orange with green.
More fun antics to satisfy returning fans and snag new ones. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781464268076
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2026
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