An empathetic, gorgeously wrought look at striking a balance between helping others and setting healthy boundaries.
A determined young vehicle learns a lesson in self-care.
Wheetle, a cheerful red anthropomorphized wagon whose handle resembles a face, greets the day with vim and vigor, ready to help out the other residents of the forest, all the while looking forward to “his favorite morning of the year,” circled on his calendar. He carries “slimy things and fragile things…along the roughest road, up…and down the big hill,” despite the presence of a squeaky wheel that gets progressively worse as the week goes on. When the circled date arrives, Wheetle enthusiastically starts his journey, only for his wheel to break while he’s assisting yet another friend. Thankfully, those he has helped along the way band together to carry him up the hill “just in time to see all the suns come up.” Caldecott Honor–winner Derby explores the fine line between being selfless and being taken advantage of; children and adults alike will readily relate. Her mixed-media collage art relies on warm yellows, oranges, blues, and purples to glorious effect, depicting a world that readers will easily lose themselves in. Wheetle himself is utterly expressive, his frustration, disappointment, and, at last, unabashed happiness coming through clearly. Derby’s text has a pleasing rhythm and contains charming details, from the many items Wheetle ferries to the “bottle-cap bow tie” he dons before setting out on that special day.
An empathetic, gorgeously wrought look at striking a balance between helping others and setting healthy boundaries. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9781250325501
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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
Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.
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)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9780593702901
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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