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THAT FRUIT IS MINE!

Name: THAT FRUIT IS MINE!
Author: Anuska Allepuz
ISBN: 978-0-8075-7894-0

by Anuska Allepuz ; illustrated by Anuska Allepuz ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2018

A solid title that emphasizes the importance of teamwork and cooperation to get to your desired fruit.

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Five little mice show five elephants the power of teamwork in this debut picture book.

Five elephants, living deep in the heart of the jungle, love fruit. One day, they see “the MOST delicious-looking exotic fruit” on a very tall tree, and each of them wants to eat it. While they try, one by one, to reach the fruit in ingenious but varying ways (“MINE!”), a group of five tiny mice, barely noticeable at first, work together to reach the golden yellow fruit and soon carry it away (“OURS!”). Illustrations are cartoonlike and expressive, with different shades of vibrant green for the jungle flora and the elephants and mice in different shades of brown and gray. Using the collaborative example set by the mice, the elephants now use their previous, individual ideas to work as a team, bringing down those delicious fruits and enjoying them together (OURS!”), except for Elephant Two, who is still gliding through the air on a leaf parachute! The elephants’ part of the story is conveyed in conventionally laid out sans-serif print, while the mice’s part is set in a significantly smaller, faux typescript face that works dynamically within the illustrations, bunching up behind the mice as they climb and swinging out as they approach the hanging fruit.

A solid title that emphasizes the importance of teamwork and cooperation to get to your desired fruit. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 1, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-8075-7894-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Whitman

Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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ONE LIGHT
by Christie Matheson ; illustrated by Anuska Allepuz

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THE DREAM TRAIN
by Sean Taylor ; illustrated by Anuska Allepuz

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A BEAR IS A BEAR
by Karl Newson ; illustrated by Anuska Allepuz

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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)