Important messaging clumsily executed.
“Crybaby” Ari is expelled from the Bold Bunch, but everything changes after a dragon visits.
“In a little town nestled among forests and mountains, there lives a fabulous group of the bravest boys and girls around. They call themselves the Bold Bunch, and they’re all brave, strong, swift, agile and intelligent.” This supposedly stellar group is led by the bullying braggart Jamie, and on Ari and friend Leah’s first outing with the Bold Bunch, Jamie insists the kids enter a dark, abandoned building to test their bravery. Despite his fear of the dark, Ari enters…and whimpers. Jamie sneers (“Boys don’t cry!”) and tells Ari he can’t join the group, but Leah stands up for Ari. Night falls, and the kids gather around a campfire (Ari sits, dejected, on the outskirts). Suddenly, a dragon appears and announces that she needs a courageous child to accompany her to the land of the dragons—and she selects Ari, tasking him with figuring out what’s wrong with her gloomy son, Zuri. Turns out Zuri, who’s afraid of the dark, is worried about an upcoming trip to a cavern: What if the other dragons deem him a crybaby? Luckily, Ari knows just what to say. Translated from Portuguese, this rather preachy tale offers a worthy takeaway but substitutes lengthy narration and clunky dialogue for compelling action. Carot’s cartoon illustrations of big-headed kids reflect the text rather than extending it. Ari and Jamie are light-skinned; Leah is brown-skinned; the others are diverse.
Important messaging clumsily executed. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9788419607713
Page Count: 44
Publisher: NubeOcho
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
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
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2026
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
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