Sweetly offers essential, timely lessons about aligning with those different from oneself.
Mip and Pip, two woodland fairies of drastically different dispositions, hold a contest to see which of them can build “the best tree house by sundown.”
The sprites’ physical and temperamental differences propel this familiar grasshopper-ant–style story. Mip sings loudly, has a flamboyant, flouncy mushroom cap on her pate, and spirits quickly about the forest looking for action. Pip reads architecture books quietly by himself, has an elongated green bud extending elegantly from his head, and deliberately plans. Yet they’re unquestionably best friends. Thought clouds show just how differently the friends think: Mip dreams up a colorful treehouse towering with turrets and flapping flags, while Pip pictures cornices and cupolas sketched out meticulously under typeset headers. When Mip’s overreaching, slapdash treehouse predictably teeters and falls, a timeless moral shines through the wreckage: Thoughtful planning and diligence pay off. Lesser stories stop here, but these fairies persevere together, connecting the remains of Mip’s house with Pip’s to make an astounding treehouse that combines both their visions. Young readers glean that antithetical personalities can work beautifully together and that contrapuntal viewpoints can produce an amazing synthesis. MacKay’s backlit dioramas, suffused with watery colors, glow gauzily. Moss greens and dawn pinks conjure the light-skinned fairies’ forest, a place that feels both familiar and faraway.
Sweetly offers essential, timely lessons about aligning with those different from oneself. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7624-6299-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Running Press Kids
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
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: Feb. 15, 2025
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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