A sympathetic protagonist finds common ground with a diverse group of friends.
A shy but imaginative girl struggles to make friends until she overcomes her fears in Daniel-Ayoade’s picture book, illustrated by newcomer Logina.
Third grader Kayla sits alone every lunch period. She wants to approach Naomi, Samantha, and Bianca to ask whether she can sit with them, but she’s afraid; her shyness makes her hold back. She thinks of her grandmother’s advice: “Face your fear, Kayla. What’s the worst that could happen?” Unfortunately, Kayla’s imagination is so vivid, she can come up with a lot of horrible results. She sits alone, and later, she avoids finding a partner in gym by hiding in the bathroom. At home, Kayla confesses to her brother, Eric, that she’s been avoiding her schoolmates because she fears what might happen: “Eric grunted a reply. He had autism and didn’t speak, but she knew he meant to say, ‘I know how you feel. Next time, take a deep breath and try to stay calm.’ ” The next day, when Naomi hands Kayla a party invitation, Kayla breathes deeply and accepts. At the party, Kayla soon forgets to feel shy and—with the encouragement of her new friend and an incentive to win a gift for her brother—finds the courage to sing for the guests. Some pages have just a couple of lines of text and others 10 or more, but Daniel-Ayoade’s straightforward narrative is inviting, even in the more text-dense pages. The open-ended titular question is answered in Kayla’s own imaginings, depicted in Logina’s soft-edged cartoonlike illustrations. While Kayla’s fears of being mocked are understandable, her imagined consequences finally become so ridiculous, as comically depicted by Logina, that readers will laugh along with her. Kayla and another girl have different shades of brown skin and curly hair, a third girl is pale and blonde, and Naomi is depicted as Asian American, but the text doesn’t call attention to the cast’s ethnicities (beyond giving Naomi the surname “Lau,” a variant on the Chinese “Liu”), making their differences feel natural.
A sympathetic protagonist finds common ground with a diverse group of friends.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77701-355-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Jewels & Pearls Publishing Ltd.
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of...
An international story tackles a serious global issue with Reynolds’ characteristic visual whimsy.
Gie Gie—aka Princess Gie Gie—lives with her parents in Burkina Faso. In her kingdom under “the African sky, so wild and so close,” she can tame wild dogs with her song and make grass sway, but despite grand attempts, she can neither bring the water closer to home nor make it clean. French words such as “maintenant!” (now!) and “maman” (mother) and local color like the karite tree and shea nuts place the story in a French-speaking African country. Every morning, Gie Gie and her mother perch rings of cloth and large clay pots on their heads and walk miles to the nearest well to fetch murky, brown water. The story is inspired by model Georgie Badiel, who founded the Georgie Badiel Foundation to make clean water accessible to West Africans. The details in Reynolds’ expressive illustrations highlight the beauty of the West African landscape and of Princess Gie Gie, with her cornrowed and beaded hair, but will also help readers understand that everyone needs clean water—from the children of Burkina Faso to the children of Flint, Michigan.
Though told by two outsiders to the culture, this timely and well-crafted story will educate readers on the preciousness of potable water. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-17258-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
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