A rollicking romp for new readers.
Two fox kits aren’t ready for bed yet in this early reader by a Geisel Medal honoree.
Gray fox Fritz and red fox Franny are enthusiastic playmates: eager to build, to explore—and to avoid bedtime. Their story is divided into three parts, and while each could be read alone, they flow well as one narrative. In “Ready for Bed,” Fritz and Franny rambunctiously prepare for bedtime (“I can brush my teeth faster than you!” Franny boasts as water, toothpaste, and foam spill everywhere) and have a “good-night dance party” despite their caregivers’ best efforts to settle them down. In “My Bunk Is Better,” Fritz and Franny compare and contrast their top and bottom bunk beds while pretending the furniture is a treehouse and cave, a ship, a submarine, and so on. In “Let’s Trade?” the duo swap beds as each tries to prove that their respective bunk is better. Kügler seamlessly weaves repeated words and phrases into the story, so as readers enjoy Fritz and Franny’s antics, they will expand their vocabularies and build reading confidence without feeling as though they are practicing. Kügler expertly uses character-associated colors and a vertical page layout to foster visual literacy and provide visual clues for readers. The majority of the text is in speech balloons.
A rollicking romp for new readers. (Graphic early reader. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-56167-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A shining affirmation of Chinese American identity.
An immigrant couple’s empowering love letter to their child.
Baby Mei rests in her parents’ embrace, flanked by Chinese architecture on one side and the New York skyline on the other. She will be a bridge across the “oceans and worlds and cultures” that separate her parents from their homeland, China. Mei—a Chinese word which means beautiful—shares a name with her family’s new home: Měi Guó (America). Her parents acknowledge the hypocrisy of xenophobia: “It’s a strange world we live in—people will call you different with one breath and then say that we all look the same with the next angry breath.” Mei will have the responsibility of being “teacher and translator” to her parents. They might not be able to completely shield her from racism, othering, and the pressures of assimilation, but they can reassure and empower her—and they do. Mei and young readers are encouraged to rely on the “golden flame” of strength, power, and hope they carry within them. The second-person narration adds intimacy to the lyrical text. Diao’s lovely digital artwork works in tandem with Chen’s rich textual imagery to celebrate Chinese culture, family history, and language. The illustrations incorporate touchstones of Chinese mythology and art—a majestic dragon, a phoenix, and lotus flowers—as well as family photographs. One double-page spread depicts a lineup of notable Chinese Americans. In the backmatter, Chen and Diao relay their own family stories of immigration. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A shining affirmation of Chinese American identity. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-84205-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
A sweet and unexpected addition to the waiting-for-baby shelf.
A big, yellow hound dog has small, wonderful dreams.
Emma’s dreams are doggily simple. Rendered in gray, they manifest above her contentedly slumbering form: “singing, dancing, rolling in grass, splashing in water, going for walks,” and eating. After she wakes and eats, she naps again, sprawled on her back, tummy distended, the very picture of canine bliss. Pages turn, with Cooper’s lyrical text focusing on Emma and her sensations: “The days went on, shifting and taking shape, and now there were times when her whole body felt strange, but there was no stopping the days.” A gently curving line of overlapping Emmas, rising, stretching, scratching, shifting, and resettling, underscores time’s march. Adult readers may be anxious at this point, fearing Emma’s impending death with the page turn—but no, it turns out Emma’s been literally full of wonders, and she gazes mildly at a puppy emerging from her own body. Then there they are, seven little Emmas, and they now embody her dreams. Cooper’s brushy, loose watercolors, outlined in swoops of ink, complement his Emma-focused text. She resides in a human home, but her owner appears only as tan-skinned hands extending from the margin to offer a bowl of food, caress her snout, or towel off a pup. In this way, Cooper invites readers into Emma’s interiority, allowing them to sit quietly and wonder with her.
A sweet and unexpected addition to the waiting-for-baby shelf. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884763
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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