A dollhouse for everyone.
Readers will feel right at home with this cozy tribute to imagination.
In pitch-perfect, first-person narration, a young girl introduces readers to her beloved dollhouse, made from a cardboard box and decorated with crafted odds and ends. The toy family living there is made up of dolls and stuffed animals, including a mother doll and twin girl dolls, Grandma Mousey, and a stuffed bear Daddy. She delights in making props for them and tucks them in to sleep in one big bed. On a play date, she discovers that her friend Sophie has a pristine, fully accessorized dollhouse with a matching doll family. (All the human characters, both girls and dolls, are white.) Sophie rejects ideas for crafting decorations or adding characters to their pretend play, so once the family is settled into four tidy beds, the bored girls go outside to play. When Sophie comes to play at her house, the narrator is nervous that her friend will look down on her homemade dollhouse, so she hides it—but Sophie discovers it and is enchanted. The girls make many things to embellish the house and delight in pretend play. The childlike voice in Potter’s text is matched by her downright charming watercolor-and-ink illustrations, which invite close inspection and might inspire readers in their own dollhouse craft—particularly if they can access the inside of the jacket, which provides dollhouse-making instructions.
A dollhouse for everyone. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-52154-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 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
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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