Spirited and sweet, though a bit preachy.
Vera won’t let anything stop her as she follows her dreams all the way to space.
Located in a jungle, the Great Space Academy is a prestigious school for aspiring child astronauts. Vera’s thrilled to begin her studies there. Her new friend Ana notes that there aren’t many girls at the school, but Vera remains confident. She trains hard, aiming to earn one of only three coveted spots on an expedition to Mars. The tests are grueling, but Vera tackles each challenge with courage and determination. Commander Polaris is surprised as she meets her tasks with aplomb; her classmate Leo resents her success and sabotages the final test. After Vera is passed over for the mission, disaster strikes the Mars-bound crew. Vera and Ana must rely on their training to save the day. Vera’s heroism leads to a successful astronaut career, inspiring more girls to follow in her footsteps. Themes of perseverance and female empowerment are front and center, though the story feels heavy-handed in its messaging, and adult readers in particular may balk at the implication that women and girls must go above and beyond their male peers in order to be recognized. Translated from Spanish, the text is straightforward, if at times stiff; Leo’s abrupt transition from disgruntled to appreciative feels unconvincing. Vera is tan-skinned with curly black hair, Ana is pale-skinned and blond-haired, and Leo is tan-skinned and red-haired.
Spirited and sweet, though a bit preachy. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9788410406292
Page Count: 40
Publisher: NubeOcho
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
As insubstantial as hot air.
A diverse cast of children first makes a fleet of hot air balloons and then takes to the sky in them.
Lifestyle maven Gaines uses this activity as a platform to celebrate diversity in learning and working styles. Some people like to work together; others prefer a solo process. Some take pains to plan extensively; others know exactly what they want and jump right in. Some apply science; others demonstrate artistic prowess. But “see how beautiful it can be when / our differences share the same sky?” Double-page spreads leading up to this moment of liftoff are laid out such that rhyming abcb quatrains typically contain one or two opposing concepts: “Some of us are teachers / and share what we know. / But all of us are learners. / Together is how we grow!” In the accompanying illustration, a bespectacled, Asian-presenting child at a blackboard lectures the other children on “balloon safety.” Gaines’ text has the ring of sincerity, but the sentiment is hardly an original one, and her verse frequently sacrifices scansion for rhyme. Sometimes it abandons both: “We may not look / or work or think the same, / but we all have an / important part to play.” Swaney’s delicate, pastel-hued illustrations do little to expand on the text, but they are pretty. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.2-by-18.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 70.7% of actual size.)
As insubstantial as hot air. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4003-1423-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tommy Nelson
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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