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KEEP YOUR HEAD UP

Name: KEEP YOUR HEAD UP
Author: Aliya King Neil
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8040-7

by Aliya King Neil ; illustrated by Charly Palmer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 28, 2021

An excellent book for teaching children the importance of showing themselves grace and kindness.

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D wakes up late, no one greets him, and his sister has used his favorite toothpaste to make slime. Will D’s day get any better?

D, a young Black boy, tries to make the best of a bad day. Despite the less-than-stellar start to his morning, he manages to keep his head up and try to turn it around. However, once at school, he learns that he’s missing his gym uniform and won’t be able to participate. As hard as he tries to fight it, his “bad day face slips out.” As the day progresses, D’s “bad day face” becomes his “scrunchy face,” and eventually he has a full-on “meltdown”—which lands him in the principal’s office. There, D talks with Miss King, who likens him to a fragile vinyl LP, an analogy that is both fitting and affirming. D’s parents come to pick him up from school, which doesn’t help his mood, but he makes the decision to keep his head up anyway. D’s mental state is represented in Palmer’s painterly illustrations by a cloud that floats above his head. As the day wears on, the cloud grows bigger and darker, the meltdown page rendered as nothing but vigorous black brush strokes. Readers will recognize their own feelings of anger, disappointment, and loss of control through Neil’s empathetic text, laden with sensory metaphors. D’s school is majority Black, and his teachers and Miss King are Black as well. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An excellent book for teaching children the importance of showing themselves grace and kindness. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-5344-8040-7

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Denene Millner Books/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: July 13, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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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)

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

by Marilyn Sadler ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2024

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.

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A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.

Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)