A tender-hearted tale about overcoming the pangs of social anxiety. Having just moved to town, Tilly gazes longingly at the children in the playground but is too shy to approach them. She learns that playing such favorite childhood games as hide-and-seek is not much fun solo. However, with judicious use of her imagination, she soon discovers a special playmate of her own. A stuffed, blue horse becomes her companion. With the ingenuity of youth, Tilly has lively interactions with her special friend, sharing many conversations and adventures together. When Tilly spies a girl playing alone on the playground, her bond with the blue horse bolsters her confidence, enabling her to seek out a new friend. Stephens’s (The Quigleys, 2002, etc.) empathetic tale is on target for preschoolers. She compassionately addresses the trials of bashfulness and models simple coping strategies that are appropriate for small fry. Young readers can readily identify with Tilly’s dilemma and will appreciate her imaginative solution. The full-bleed illustrations are densely colored in a myriad of vibrant hues: Tilly’s teal and purple room with its sunshine yellow door is a perfect haven for a child. In her expressive paintings, Stephens deftly segues into the fantasy sequences with ease, using items that were already in Tilly’s room to inspire her subsequent flights of fancy. This warmly reassuring tale is ideal to share with hesitant little ones. (Picture book. 2-5)
Pub Date: March 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-439-43178-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original...
A sweetened, condensed version of the best-selling picture book, The Kissing Hand.
As in the original, Chester Raccoon is nervous about attending Owl’s night school (raccoons are nocturnal). His mom kisses him on the paw and reminds him, “With a Kissing Hand… / We’ll never be apart.” The text boils the story down to its key elements, causing this version to feel rushed. Gone is the list of fun things Chester will get to do at school. Fans of the original may be disappointed that this board edition uses a different illustrator. Gibson’s work is equally sentimental, but her renderings are stiff and flat in comparison to the watercolors of Harper and Leak. Very young readers will probably not understand that Owl’s tree, filled with opossums, a squirrel, a chipmunk and others, is supposed to be a school.
Parents of toddlers starting school or day care should seek separation-anxiety remedies elsewhere, and fans of the original shouldn’t look to this version as replacement for their page-worn copies. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-933718-77-4
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Tanglewood Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A heartwarming story about facing fears and acceptance.
A boy with wings learns to be himself and inspires others like him to soar, too.
Norman, a “perfectly normal” boy, never dreamed he might grow wings. Afraid of what his parents might say, he hides his new wings under a big, stuffy coat. Although the coat hides his wings from the world, Norman no longer finds joy in bathtime, playing at the park, swimming, or birthday parties. With the gentle encouragement of his parents, who see his sadness, Norman finds the courage to come out of hiding and soar. Percival (The Magic Looking Glass, 2017, etc.) depicts Norman with light skin and dark hair. Black-and-white illustrations show his father with dark skin and hair and his mother as white. The contrast of black-and-white illustrations with splashes of bright color complements the story’s theme. While Norman tries to be “normal,” the world and people around him look black and gray, but his coat stands out in yellow. Birds pop from the page in pink, green, and blue, emphasizing the joy and beauty of flying free. The final spread, full of bright color and multiracial children in flight, sets the mood for Norman’s realization on the last page that there is “no such thing as perfectly normal,” but he can be “perfectly Norman.”
A heartwarming story about facing fears and acceptance. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-68119-785-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
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