Will work best for adults seeking a guide to use with young children.
This bilingual book presents a series of mindfulness exercises to help young children focus and transition from one activity to another.
While pretending to be elephants, frogs, and cats, children engage in mindfulness practices such as bending, hopping, and stretching that help them wiggle their waggles away, ending with “Now it’s time to be ourselves. / … / We are ready for what’s next!” and “Y ahora seamos nosotros mismos. /… / ¡Estamos listos para lo que sigue!” Spanish speakers may find one quibble in Perez’s otherwise flawless translation of the English text into Spanish: The verb “to swing” is arguably better translated as “mecer” rather than “balancear.” The book is also available as an English-only text. Companion volume Rest & Relax / Descansa y relájate is similar in presentation and is also published in an English-only edition. Here, children prepare for sleep as they are led through guided visualization to relax their bodies, starting with their toes, followed by their knees, tummies, hands, arms, shoulders, until they eventually close their eyes. The kid-friendly artwork, featuring a group of children diverse in both skin tone and physical abilities (one has a guide dog), is more decorative than informative, and it is really the text that informs what the actions to be taken should be.
Will work best for adults seeking a guide to use with young children. (Board book. 2-5)Pub Date: April 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-78285-983-3
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original...
A sweetened, condensed version of the best-selling picture book, The Kissing Hand.
As in the original, Chester Raccoon is nervous about attending Owl’s night school (raccoons are nocturnal). His mom kisses him on the paw and reminds him, “With a Kissing Hand… / We’ll never be apart.” The text boils the story down to its key elements, causing this version to feel rushed. Gone is the list of fun things Chester will get to do at school. Fans of the original may be disappointed that this board edition uses a different illustrator. Gibson’s work is equally sentimental, but her renderings are stiff and flat in comparison to the watercolors of Harper and Leak. Very young readers will probably not understand that Owl’s tree, filled with opossums, a squirrel, a chipmunk and others, is supposed to be a school.
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original shouldn’t look to this version as replacement for their page-worn copies. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-933718-77-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A heartwarming story about facing fears and acceptance.
A boy with wings learns to be himself and inspires others like him to soar, too.
Norman, a “perfectly normal” boy, never dreamed he might grow wings. Afraid of what his parents might say, he hides his new wings under a big, stuffy coat. Although the coat hides his wings from the world, Norman no longer finds joy in bathtime, playing at the park, swimming, or birthday parties. With the gentle encouragement of his parents, who see his sadness, Norman finds the courage to come out of hiding and soar. Percival (The Magic Looking Glass, 2017, etc.) depicts Norman with light skin and dark hair. Black-and-white illustrations show his father with dark skin and hair and his mother as white. The contrast of black-and-white illustrations with splashes of bright color complements the story’s theme. While Norman tries to be “normal,” the world and people around him look black and gray, but his coat stands out in yellow. Birds pop from the page in pink, green, and blue, emphasizing the joy and beauty of flying free. The final spread, full of bright color and multiracial children in flight, sets the mood for Norman’s realization on the last page that there is “no such thing as perfectly normal,” but he can be “perfectly Norman.”
A heartwarming story about facing fears and acceptance. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68119-785-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
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