OLIVE AND THE BAD MOOD

Name: OLIVE AND THE BAD MOOD
Author: Tor Freeman
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6657-6

by Tor Freeman ; illustrated by Tor Freeman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2013

Unfortunately, the realistically petty temper tantrum and unhealthy coping mechanism overshadow the slight humor and seem...

bookshelf

Olive the (anthropomorphic) orange cat is back—and she’s still oblivious to the impact of her actions (Olive and the Big Secret, 2012).

The drama starts immediately as Olive trips on an untied shoelace, skids along under the copyright data and lands in an irritated heap on the title page. She then takes out her temper by making rude remarks to everyone she meets. From bunny best friend Molly, who innocently inquires whether Olive would like to play, to Lola the giraffe, who just wants to say hi, Olive belittles, insults and ignores her friends. Not surprisingly, each of them winds up in a bad mood too. Freeman keeps the text simple and conversational though not always convincingly childlike. Her mixed-media illustrations are crisp, and her animal characters, with round bodies, large heads, and comically small arms and legs, caper across white space that is mostly uncluttered by background details. Olive’s pronounced pout expresses her negative feelings, while her friends’ transitions from cheery to cranky are shown in serial portraits that also convey motion and activity. After annoying everyone, Olive soothes herself with sweets, shares them freely—and then sinks back into the doldrums when the candy runs out.

Unfortunately, the realistically petty temper tantrum and unhealthy coping mechanism overshadow the slight humor and seem likely to leave young listeners and their parents even less enchanted with Olive than her friends are. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-7636-6657-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Templar/Candlewick

Review Posted Online: July 16, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BOOK THAT NO ONE WANTED TO READ
by Richard Ayoade ; illustrated by Tor Freeman

- BOOK REVIEW
GOOD DOGS ON A BAD DAY
by Rachel Wenitsky & David Sidorov ; illustrated by Tor Freeman

- BOOK REVIEW
BRICKS
by Katie Cotton ; illustrated by Tor Freeman

bookshelf

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...

bookshelf

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
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

bookshelf

RUBY FINDS A WORRY

From the Big Bright Feelings series

by Tom Percival ; illustrated by Tom Percival ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019

A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their...

bookshelf

Ruby is an adventurous and happy child until the day she discovers a Worry.

Ruby barely sees the Worry—depicted as a blob of yellow with a frowny unibrow—at first, but as it hovers, the more she notices it and the larger it grows. The longer Ruby is affected by this Worry, the fewer colors appear on the page. Though she tries not to pay attention to the Worry, which no one else can see, ignoring it prevents her from enjoying the things that she once loved. Her constant anxiety about the Worry causes the bright yellow blob to crowd Ruby’s everyday life, which by this point is nearly all washes of gray and white. But at the playground, Ruby sees a boy sitting on a bench with a growing sky-blue Worry of his own. When she invites the boy to talk, his Worry begins to shrink—and when Ruby talks about her own Worry, it also grows smaller. By the book’s conclusion, Ruby learns to control her Worry by talking about what worries her, a priceless lesson for any child—or adult—conveyed in a beautifully child-friendly manner. Ruby presents black, with hair in cornrows and two big afro-puff pigtails, while the boy has pale skin and spiky black hair.

A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their feelings (. (Picture book. 4-6)