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UNSTINKY

Name: UNSTINKY
Author: Andy Rash
ISBN: 978-0-439-36880-3

by Andy Rash ; illustrated by Andy Rash ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 25, 2018

Get a good whiff of this olfactorily original celebration of individuality.

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What’s a stinkbug to do if it can’t make a stink?

At every stinking contest, stinkbug Bud pales in comparison to his more-pungent kin. While the others emit scents of smokestack, dead fish, or dog doo, Bud stands out with his scent of flowers. Or pine tree. Or new car. Even his name lacks a certain je ne sais quoi when compared to the likes of P.U. Bottoms, Lord Stinkington, and The Fumigator. Time and time again, Bud’s not-so-stinky fragrances land him in last place—and make him feel like an outsider. When a bee named April follows her nose to flowers but instead sees Bud dancing (and smelling) up a storm, she invites him to her hive for a dance party. The other bees initially turn up their noses at the stinkbug. But when they see Bud’s dance moves and smell his most fragrant scent of all, everything eventually starts coming up roses. Rash’s bold art mixes gouache, ink, and digital techniques to create a rich, colorful world. Between double-page spreads and a few large comics-style panels (all with textured backgrounds), there’s minimal white space. For a story about an outsider, this one stands out in that Bud’s struggle with what a stinkbug should be is mostly internal. The only real bully in this story is Bud himself.

Get a good whiff of this olfactorily original celebration of individuality. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-439-36880-3

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Levine/Scholastic

Review Posted Online: July 15, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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by Andy Rash ; illustrated by Andy Rash

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by Andy Rash ; illustrated by Andy Rash

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by Caron Levis ; illustrated by Andy Rash

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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)