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HERE AND THERE

Name: HERE AND THERE
Author: Thea Lu
ISBN: 9780802856234

by Thea Lu ; illustrated by Thea Lu ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 23, 2024

Warm and thoughtful.

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Two parallel stories describe men who live different lives.

Dan, the owner of a small cafe, lives Here, in a town by the sea, while Aki lives There, on a boat on the water. On each spread, Dan is featured on the left-hand side and Aki on the right. Lu uses delicately colored pencil strokes and patterned paint strokes to ground Here in a palette of browns, while There is awash in blues. She employs deliberate language that initially implies opposites but in fact shows that the two have similar feelings. Dan, who has never left his hometown, “wonders what life is like in other places,” while Aki, who’s “never had a place to call home…wishes for an old friend to talk with.” A typical day has Dan opening his cafe, “looking forward to the people who stop in.” Aki usually arrives in port, “thinking about the people he might meet.” What do they have in common? Regardless of where either one is, their connections with others make for a joyful life. The narrative, originally written in English and Chinese, ends satisfyingly as the two men each reminisce about a special day when Dan welcomed a seafaring stranger into the cafe and Aki visited a cafe where people felt like family, and the two sides of the page finally meet. Dan's cheeks are drawn with pops of beige, while Aki's skin is blue-tinged.

Warm and thoughtful. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: April 23, 2024

ISBN: 9780802856234

Page Count: 36

Publisher: Eerdmans

Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
DIVE, DIVE INTO THE NIGHT SEA
by Thea Lu ; illustrated by Thea Lu

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

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...

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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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
A PERFECT PLACE TO PLAY
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Jim Valeri

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

by Marilyn Sadler ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2024

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.

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A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.

Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)