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TUMMY TROUBLES

Name: TUMMY TROUBLES
Author: Jaime Roche
ISBN: 9781433840784

GRETCHEN GETS A GRIP ON HER FEAR OF THROWING UP

by Jaime Roche ; illustrated by Doruntina Beqiraj ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 6, 2023

Supportive.

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A small fear causes some big emotions.

Gretchen looks forward to Fridays—pizza day at school! While she’s munching on her slice, her stomach starts to make angry noises, and she throws up. Her mom thinks it’s just a stomach bug, and indeed, Gretchen wakes up the next morning feeling better. When next Friday arrives, however, Gretchen is too nervous to enter the cafeteria. Her teacher takes her to see the school counselor, Dr. Hernandez, who explains that Gretchen’s body is experiencing a “fight-or-flight response.” This can make a person feel anxious and sick, even if nothing is physically wrong. She then tells Gretchen to “get a GRIP”—“Ground, Refocus, Inflate, and Pause"—in a targeted breathing exercise. Success! Gretchen is able to eat pizza once more. An extensive readers note from a licensed psychologist provides more information on emetophobia (the fear of vomiting and seeing others vomit) and tips for assisting children experiencing anxiety. It also acknowledges that though Gretchen quickly conquers her fear, in reality, this is a process that requires consistent support. This well-paced and informative narrative may seem niche to some, but it’s useful for young readers experiencing many forms of anxiety. Straightforward illustrations depict friendly characters with large round heads but no actual vomit. Gretchen and her family are light-skinned; Dr. Hernandez is brown-skinned.

Supportive. (Picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: June 6, 2023

ISBN: 9781433840784

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Magination/American Psychological Association

Review Posted Online: March 28, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S HEALTH & DAILY LIVING

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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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)