A well-played serenade to the power of kindness and community.
Newly arrived in Delaware from Jamaica, Marley is determined to make new friends by performing an outdoor family concert for her neighbors.
The weather, however, has other plans. Marley’s parents and older sister seem ready for a rain check as a downpour drags on outside, but Marley and her two younger brothers, Axel and Zayne, won’t be dissuaded. “You can’t fix a problem until you look at it up close,” Marley tells her mother, then the three children don rain gear and head for the park. Having experienced tropical storms back in Jamaica, Marley decides that the concert can go on if many umbrellas are hung from the overhead stage lights. “Who has that many umbrellas?” Axel asks skeptically. Marley decides they will help their neighbors with their storm problems in exchange for umbrellas. The siblings cheerfully and determinedly rescue a cat, bail out a flooded basement, and pick produce in a greenhouse. The plan works well until they meet someone who needs all the umbrellas they have collected. There is a small moment of hesitation when Marley’s smile loses its sunniness, but she and her brothers head home empty-handed. The ending is both unsurprising and gratifying. The vibrant digital watercolor-and-crayon illustrations coupled with the communal focus of the text set a positive tone throughout. The joy of music is present in textual metaphors as well as visual representations of instruments and musical notes, even in the endpapers. Marley and her family are Black, while the neighbors have skin tones that range from pale to dark.
A well-played serenade to the power of kindness and community. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-30111-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2021
Handy advice for perpetually inquisitive children.
Interior decorator and TV personality Gaines invites readers to open their eyes and exercise their imaginations.
There’s a world to be explored out there—and only children can really take part. What does “looking for wonder” entail? Slowing down and looking up, around, and everywhere. At the outset, a group of eager, racially diverse young friends—including one who uses a wheelchair—are fully prepared for a grand adventure. They offer tips about how and where to look: Why, there’s a “grand parade” of marching ants! And, these kids add, perspective is key. A rainy day might signal gloom to some, but to those filled with wonder, showers bring “magic puddles for play”; a forest is “an enchanted world,” the ocean conceals “a spectacular city,” and the night sky boasts “extraordinary sights.” The takeaway: “Wonder is never in short supply.” It’s a robust, empowering message, as is the exhortation to “keep your mind open, and let curiosity guide the way.” Youngsters are also advised to share their discoveries. The upbeat narrative is delivered in clunky verse, but the colorful cartoonish illustrations brimming with activity and good cheer (including some adorable anthropomorphized animals in the backgrounds) make up for the textual lapses and should motivate readers to embark on their own “wonder explorations.”
Handy advice for perpetually inquisitive children. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781400247417
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tommy Nelson
Review Posted Online: today
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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