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HELLO, LITTLE ONE

Name: HELLO, LITTLE ONE
Author: Zeena Pliska
ISBN: 978-1-62414-931-3

A MONARCH BUTTERFLY STORY

by Zeena Pliska ; illustrated by Fiona Halliday ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 12, 2020

This introduction to a well-loved butterfly species meets with mixed success.

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A monarch butterfly befriends a newly hatched monarch larva and offers it a glimpse into a future with wings.

The narrative is voiced by the caterpillar: “Coming out of my egg, I see… / green.” When a monarch butterfly comes to “sip nectar from a nearby flower” the caterpillar refers to it as Orange. The butterfly tells the caterpillar, “Once, I was just like you on this milkweed plant.” The caterpillar longs to see more than the leaves nearby: “I can’t wait to fly with Orange.” The butterfly tells the caterpillar about what she sees from above: flowers blooming, forest, ocean, a schoolyard. She says that one day the caterpillar will be able to see these things for itself, but the butterfly won’t be there: “I must go. We all must, someday.” Halliday’s bold, frequently full-bleed digital collages have an impressive sense of depth and realistically depict the colors of the insects and flora, but they anthropomorphize by giving large, round, glossy, expressive eyes to both butterfly and larva. The gentle conversations between caterpillar and butterfly reach for a metaphor along with the factual depiction of the monarch’s life cycle, but the result is that both story and science are somewhat weakened. Backmatter briefly describes the life cycle and mentions the annual migration of each season’s last generation.

This introduction to a well-loved butterfly species meets with mixed success. (bibliography) (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: May 12, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-62414-931-3

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Page Street

Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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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...

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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)