by Christine Evans ; illustrated by Gracey Zhang ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 4, 2023
A tender, vibrant portrait of intergenerational connection.
The friendship between a young child and an elderly neighbor as told through their letters.
After kicking a soccer ball into Mr. Graham’s rose garden, almost 7-year-old Jackson sends an apology letter accompanied by a batch of scones. What starts with an accident blooms into a friendly back-and-forth correspondence about soccer, sweets, and the care of roses. With each small moment and thought shared, their friendship grows, and Mr. Graham fondly becomes “Mr. G.” Even when the neighbor moves to senior housing, the friendship continues. Jackson’s family transplants the roses to their yard and takes on their care; the two keep in touch via letters, and Jackson even visits. By nature of time and age, the correspondence must eventually cease. Jackson, however, learns a long-lasting lesson: Roses will bloom time and time again. With care and heart, Evans’ epistolary tale centers on a neighborly and intergenerational bond. Zhang’s art beautifully illustrates the warmth of their bond, the passing of time, and the ache of loss. A colorful palette and evocative strokes of the brush bring energy to Evans’ gentle and moving narrative about Black-presenting Mr. G (later portrayed using a wheelchair) and tan-skinned Jackson. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A tender, vibrant portrait of intergenerational connection. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781454944171
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
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by Christine Evans ; illustrated by Yas Imamura
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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BOOK REVIEW
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
by Angela DiTerlizzi ; illustrated by Lorena Alvarez ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 14, 2020
A solid if message-driven conversation starter about the hard parts of learning.
Children realize their dreams one step at a time in this story about growth mindset.
A child crashes and damages a new bicycle on a dark, rainy day. Attempting a wheelie, the novice cyclist falls onto the sidewalk, grimacing, and, having internalized this setback as failure, vows to never ride again but to “walk…forever.” Then the unnamed protagonist happens upon a glowing orb in the forest, a “thought rearranger-er”—a luminous pink fairy called the Magical Yet. This Yet reminds the child of past accomplishments and encourages perseverance. The second-person rhyming couplets remind readers that mistakes are part of learning and that with patience and effort, children can achieve. Readers see the protagonist learn to ride the bike before a flash-forward shows the child as a capable college graduate confidently designing a sleek new bike. This book shines with diversity: racial, ethnic, ability, and gender. The gender-indeterminate protagonist has light brown skin and exuberant curly locks; Amid the bustling secondary cast, one child uses a prosthesis, and another wears hijab. At no point in the text is the Yet defined as a metaphor for a growth mindset; adults reading with younger children will likely need to clarify this abstract lesson. The artwork is powerful and detailed—pay special attention to the endpapers that progress to show the Yet at work.
A solid if message-driven conversation starter about the hard parts of learning. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-368-02562-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion/LBYR
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
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by Angela DiTerlizzi ; illustrated by Lorena Alvarez Gómez
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by Angela DiTerlizzi ; illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi
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by Angela DiTerlizzi ; illustrated by Tom Booth
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