A satisfying tale of sisterhood—and of a younger sibling who finds a way to shine.
Sisters Weitzman and Glasser team up for a tale of individuality, acceptance, and sibling conflict.
Narrator Daisy introduces her family: her parents, who grow and sell flowers, and her big sisters, Lily and Poppy. The older girls’ distinctive personalities are reflected in their respective gardens. Lily’s carefully bordered, ruler-perfect squares, manicured with scissors, evince her perfectionism. In chaotic contrast, Poppy’s garden is a riot of her namesake scarlet flowers, ornaments, birdhouses, and a Rube Goldberg–esque device. (Poppy optimistically even plants hard candies.) Each sister gently critiques the other’s style: Poppy suggests a trampoline for Lily’s plot, and Lily encourages Poppy to be a bit more orderly. So far, little Daisy tends just one plant in a flowerpot, but today is the day she gets her own garden. Predictably, each sister wants Daisy’s plot to reflect her own preferences. In an escalating contest, they go so far as to divide Daisy’s plot between them. But Daisy knows that her garden needs to reflect her own identity. The writing provides effective characterization as the sisters’ rival visions unfurl. Delicate drawings bloom with detail and color. The girls are light-skinned: Lily has long, neatly tied black hair, Poppy has spiky locks, and Daisy’s short red curls stand out.
A satisfying tale of sisterhood—and of a younger sibling who finds a way to shine. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780062279286
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child...
Imani endures the insults heaped upon her by the other village children, but she never gives up her dreams.
The Masai girl is tiny compared to the other children, but she is full of imagination and perseverance. Luckily, she has a mother who believes in her and tells her stories that will fuel that imagination. Mama tells her about the moon goddess, Olapa, who wins over the sun god. She tells Imani about Anansi, the trickster spider who vanquishes a larger snake. (Troublingly, the fact that Anansi is a West African figure, not of the Masai, goes unaddressed in both text and author’s note.) Inspired, the tiny girl tries to find new ways to achieve her dream: to touch the moon. One day, after crashing to the ground yet again when her leafy wings fail, she is ready to forget her hopes. That night, she witnesses the adumu, the special warriors’ jumping dance. Imani wakes the next morning, determined to jump to the moon. After jumping all day, she reaches the moon, meets Olapa and receives a special present from the goddess, a small moon rock. Now she becomes the storyteller when she relates her adventure to Mama. The watercolor-and-graphite illustrations have been enhanced digitally, and the night scenes of storytelling and fantasy with their glowing stars and moons have a more powerful impact than the daytime scenes, with their blander colors.
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child to be admired. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-934133-57-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Mackinac Island Press
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
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