A loving and lovely celebration of the many ties—sisterly, friendship, communal—that bind.
The creators of the bestselling The Proudest Blue (2019) return with a tale of siblings, friendship, and acts of kindness.
For picture day, Faizah wears a red dress that belonged first to Mama and then to her older sister, Asiya. Asiya does Faizah’s hair in puffs, Faizah pins Asiya’s hijab, and, with kind words from Mama, off they go to school, where Faizah finds she matches with her friend Sophie, who has light skin and red hair and is wearing a dress with red roses. Brown-skinned Ms. Ramirez asks the students to imagine the kind of world they want and to draw and label it. Faizah draws a kind world, and Sophie draws a superhero world. Then, at recess and throughout the day, they use their superpowers to make the world kinder, helping other kids and brightening their days. By picture time, everyone in class is smiling. But when it’s time for sibling photos, Faizah is upset to realize that, unlike the other sibling pairs, she and Asiya don’t match. Can her friends find a way to help? Helping others looks fun and rewarding in this sweet tale that empowers readers by showing them their actions can result in a world everyone would want to live in. This much-needed positive representation of a loving Black Muslim family is set within a diverse community, depicted with Aly’s characteristic expressive energy and charm. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A loving and lovely celebration of the many ties—sisterly, friendship, communal—that bind. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5570-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
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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