photographed by Tana Hoban ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 25, 1989
Photographs in each quadrant of a page—intersected by a cross in the photos' dominant color—will serve as springboard to discussion of color, shape, utility, similarity, and a multitude of other subjects. Hoban has selected objects as diverse as a pumpkin and a ribbon, a bath toy and an ear of corn, all intrinsically interesting to a preschooler; as grouped in her dazzling, clear, sharply focused photos, they fairly beg to be talked about. Best, there is more than one page per color and always one photo with more than one color on each page, inviting comparisons and leading nicely to the next page. . .and the next. Even the endpapers display an exciting parade of brightly colored objects to beckon the "reader." Though wordless, this beautifully designed, deceptively simple book demands verbal explanation: while the subjects are concrete, the familiar is blended with the unfamiliar in such a way as to stimulate both thought and conversation ("Yes, that's a brown dog. No, it's not real, it's ceramic"). Fine as a lap book or for sharing with a group; a treasure no library serving preschoolers should forgo.
Pub Date: April 25, 1989
ISBN: 0688045855
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1989
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016
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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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 27, 2013
A comical, fresh look at crayons and color
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Duncan wants to draw, but instead of crayons, he finds a stack of letters listing the crayons’ demands in this humorous tale.
Red is overworked, laboring even on holidays. Gray is exhausted from coloring expansive spaces (elephants, rhinos and whales). Black wants to be considered a color-in color, and Peach? He’s naked without his wrapper! This anthropomorphized lot amicably requests workplace changes in hand-lettered writing, explaining their work stoppage to a surprised Duncan. Some are tired, others underutilized, while a few want official titles. With a little creativity and a lot of color, Duncan saves the day. Jeffers delivers energetic and playful illustrations, done in pencil, paint and crayon. The drawings are loose and lively, and with few lines, he makes his characters effectively emote. Clever spreads, such as Duncan’s “white cat in the snow” perfectly capture the crayons’ conundrum, and photographic representations of both the letters and coloring pages offer another layer of texture, lending to the tale’s overall believability.
A comical, fresh look at crayons and color . (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: June 27, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-399-25537-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2013
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by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Alex Willmore
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by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
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by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
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