bookshelf

OTTO GOES NORTH

Name: OTTO GOES NORTH
Author: Ulrika Kestere
ISBN: 978-1-776572-41-0

by Ulrika Kestere ; illustrated by Ulrika Kestere ; translated by Julia Marshall ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019

Good friends and a how-to-manual on knitting warm hearts.

bookshelf

Scandinavians have a strong tradition of knitwear, and here is the why and how.

Lisa, a lynx, and Nils, a bear, have been waiting a very long time for the arrival of their friend Otto, a lemur. He has come from southern climes and is extremely excited because now he can paint the northern lights. Unfortunately, it is so cold that Otto can barely hold his paintbrush. Lisa and Nils quickly put him in their sauna and feed him blueberry soup, but it does not warm him. The two then remember their library of two volumes. Fortunately, one of the titles is a knitting book—but Lisa has forgotten how to read. Happily, the book is illustrated, and Lisa and Nils carefully follow the instructions for combing their fur, spinning the wool, dying it, and fashioning a most attractive sweater. Delightfully, it keeps Otto warm, and he can complete his canvas. He returns home to hang the sweater on a wall in his studio filled with Matisse-y artwork. The three are besties in spite of their slight disagreements, and their back-and-forth banter is entertaining. The illustrations, digitized graphite pencil and acrylic paint, are colorful and portray a lovely vista of a remote Scandinavia. They also depict the steps to the creation of the sweater with charming detail.

Good friends and a how-to-manual on knitting warm hearts. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-776572-41-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Gecko Press

Review Posted Online: June 9, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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)