Teresita's anticipation will ring true to any kid who's been saddled with an evening birthday party.
A young girl celebrating her birthday waits for a gift from her uncle, absorbing the sights and sounds of her city neighborhood.
Teresita wakes up to her seventh birthday knowing that a surprise is coming: a gift from Tío Ramón, who sells piraguas (snow cones) on the street. As the day goes on with no sign of him, her impatience grows, even as she recognizes her own growing maturity. So she goes outside, jumps rope, and plays, while the lively world outside her home continues. Mothers visit the bodega; children ride bikes and play stickball; grown-ups watch the neighborhood from their windows. Eventually Tío Ramón comes, giving Teresita not her usual special iced treat but a tiny black kitten, which the girl names Piragua. With painted illustrations that in near-photorealistic detail convey the emotions and activities of the many people around Teresita, the bilingual story is a simple slice of life that gets at the way so much can happen in half a day, even if the time seems to be dragging. It also conveys Teresita's awareness that she is becoming a "big girl," a more grown-up person with more responsibilities and a wider view of the world. Baeza Ventura’s Spanish translation appears beneath Sánchez-Korrol’s English text on every double-page spread.
Teresita's anticipation will ring true to any kid who's been saddled with an evening birthday party. (Bilingual picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-55885-831-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Piñata Books/Arte Público
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Though it’s bumpy, it’s still a novel way to add some zany celebrations to the family or classroom calendar.
The Children’s Poet Laureate takes a tongue-in-cheek look at some of the weird and wacky holidays that never quite make it onto commercially printed calendars.
The vast majority of the holidays here celebrate animals: from turtles, pigs and worms to pink flamingos, skunks and sloths, among others. While many of the above may not seem celebration-worthy, a few holidays are even stranger: International Cephalopod Awareness Day (Oct. 8) and two that many will instantly add to their personal calendars: Yell “Fudge” at the Cobras in North America Day (Jun. 2) and Chocolate-Covered Anything Day (Dec. 16). But while the subject matter is certainly fascinating and amusing, the poetry can be uneven, though the riffs on English spellings shine, and the wordplay is consistently clever, especially in “Eight Table Manners for Dragons.” But there is also an element of grimness and edginess—“Play with your food, but don’t let it run around screaming.” Raff’s heavily anthropomorphized watercolor critters here include one rat with tail aflame and another pinned to the floor between the tines of a fork. Limerick Day’s five poems are equally weak, while Frog Jumping Day’s verse has nowhere near the creativity and sheer reading pleasure of the similar “Puddle Paddle Battle” from Dr. Seuss’ Fox in Socks. And parents who don’t want to explain might want to skip Mule Day’s poem, “Jack A.”
Though it’s bumpy, it’s still a novel way to add some zany celebrations to the family or classroom calendar. (Poetry. 5-8)Pub Date: March 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7636-5402-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2013
A gift of a book for new readers.
Little Dana needs big lessons in kindness more than any birthday present—unless a present can teach her something, that is.
She starts her special day wearing her favorite dress and eating her favorite breakfast, and then, because it’s her birthday “and she could do whatever she liked,” she teases a boy named Anthony. She calls him “ickaborse” and pinches him, and she eats his dessert after her own at school. She later receives many gifts at her party, but none compares with the present Anthony brings after her guests depart: “a big white elephant.” Dana is overwhelmed by the gift’s specialness and is determined to prove her worthiness of the creature, since, as she tells other children, “Not everyone deserves an elephant.” Her dogged efforts result in exhaustion, and with it, Dana becomes a target for another mean girl’s teasing. When audible hunger pangs plague her after she gives up her breakfast to the voracious elephant, for example, “Gertrude called her Grumble-Guts on the bus.” The chagrined Dana talks with Anthony, who generously reminds her about Gertrude’s coming birthday party, and it seems she’s found another birthday girl who deserves an elephant. Throughout, Schneider’s multimedia illustrations employ the same humorous, expressive line seen in his Geisel Award–winning Tales for Very Picky Eaters (2011), delivering a remarkable package.
A gift of a book for new readers. (Early reader. 6-9)Pub Date: May 7, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-83814-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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