by Alison Barber ; illustrated by Paige Keiser ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 4, 2009
A little green pea growing in row 53 dreams of someday becoming a tree. It is only when the pea is on the kitchen table next to a tuna-casserole recipe that he faces up to his future reality. He manages to roll to the floor, where he is eaten by the worm who narrates the story: “We worms do the mixing, the seeds do the mingling / and all of us wiggle and all the while giggle… / We especially like poo (we really do) / ’cause out of it all; something grew, grew, grew...” Along with the worm’s statement that, “You see, a pea is a seed,” this is likely to give children the idea that the pea did in fact grow into a tree instead of simply nourishing it, an impression reinforced by the final image of the pea’s bowtie atop the tree. Keiser’s watercolors reflect the humor of the rhymes, but are unable to overcome the text’s lack of clarity. One to skip—troubling science, a hodgepodge of cutesy rhymes and anthropomorphized animals and vegetables make for a bad combination. (Picture book. 4-7)
Pub Date: April 4, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-58536-448-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2009
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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...
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
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by Andrew Clements & illustrated by R.W. Alley ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 23, 2005
Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: May 23, 2005
ISBN: 0-618-00361-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
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by Andrew Clements & illustrated by Mark Elliott
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