A comforting lesson for anxious little perfectionists.
Crafts and Burakoff’s picture book critiques perfection and encourages young readers to go with the flow.
An unnamed peach wearing a fanny pack holds forth on finding everything around her peachy keen. The peach describes how her orchard is in perfect order and recounts planning a grand opening for a family member’s store and organizing a STEM competition. These successes have given the peach confidence; she reckons she could pull off an even bigger event with the Peach Party Jamboree, but it’s soon evident that the best-laid plans can go astray. The peach gets injured in the volleyball game, struggles with too many cars driving in for pit stops at the same time during a race, and can’t believe it when the grape band shrivels. The peach admits that she’s not so peachy keen after all, and with some help from the orchard residents, she learns that sometimes not having a plan makes things less perfect, but more fun. Crafts and Burakoff liberally pepper their prose with orchard-based humor and fruity plays on words. The message that it’s OK not to be perfect comes through clearly, assuring young readers that perfection isn’t necessary as long as everyone’s having fun. Hope’s vibrant illustrations depict a diverse harvest of fruit characters, their personalities shining through in their deftly rendered expressions.
A comforting lesson for anxious little perfectionists.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2026
ISBN: 9781962447522
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Genius Cat Books
Review Posted Online: today
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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
Spires’ understanding of the fragility and power of the artistic impulse mixes with expert pacing and subtle...
Making things is difficult work. Readers will recognize the stages of this young heroine’s experience as she struggles to realize her vision.
First comes anticipation. The artist/engineer is spotted jauntily pulling a wagonload of junkyard treasures. Accompanied by her trusty canine companion, she begins drawing plans and building an assemblage. The narration has a breezy tone: “[S]he makes things all the time. Easy-peasy!” The colorful caricatures and creations contrast with the digital black outlines on a white background that depict an urban neighborhood. Intermittent blue-gray panels break up the white expanses on selected pages showing sequential actions. When the first piece doesn’t turn out as desired, the protagonist tries again, hoping to achieve magnificence. A model of persistence, she tries many adjustments; the vocabulary alone offers constructive behaviors: she “tinkers,” “wrenches,” “fiddles,” “examines,” “stares” and “tweaks.” Such hard work, however, combines with disappointing results, eventually leading to frustration, anger and injury. Explosive emotions are followed by defeat, portrayed with a small font and scaled-down figures. When the dog, whose expressions have humorously mirrored his owner’s through each phase, retrieves his leash, the resulting stroll serves them well. A fresh perspective brings renewed enthusiasm and—spoiler alert—a most magnificent scooter sidecar for a loyal assistant.
Spires’ understanding of the fragility and power of the artistic impulse mixes with expert pacing and subtle characterization for maximum delight. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-55453-704-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
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BOOK REVIEW
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