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THE WALL

Name: THE WALL
Author: Jessie James
ISBN: 978-1-913639-39-6

by Jessie James ; illustrated by Catalina Echeverri ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 5, 2021

Timely, aspirational, affirming.

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The “world is a beautiful place” to Tom, who wants to be a “great explorer and see it all”—until his grandmother warns him that “the world is not safe."

Afraid when he hears grown-ups, TV, and newspapers talk about bad “monsters” from other parts of the world coming closer, Tom stops exploring. The grown-ups build a high, long wall to keep the monsters out. Feeling safer, Tom forgets all about exploring. But one day he receives a friendly message from across the wall and decides to climb over. Tom sees no monsters, just beautiful grasses, flowers, mountains, birds, animals, trees—and a little girl waving. The girl returns with Tom to his side of the wall. Listening to the girl talk about her home and people convinces those who built the wall to tear it down, and Tom starts exploring again. This simple story quietly reveals the insidious impact of xenophobic isolationism and offers a hopeful message. Whimsical, delicate illustrations cleverly utilize color to track Tom’s journey from joyful boy eagerly exploring his colorful world to fearful child sadly watching TV. Color gradually disappears from the illustrations as the wall rises, leaving a beige world. But when Tom scales the wall, he discovers the world awash in brilliant color, which seeps back into the illustrations as the wall falls. Though Tom presents White and the little girl Black, importantly, Tom’s community’s grown-ups are racially diverse, saving the narrative from reductive racialization.

Timely, aspirational, affirming. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-913639-39-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: New Frontier Publishing

Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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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)

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

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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TINY T. REX AND THE IMPOSSIBLE HUG

by Jonathan Stutzman ; illustrated by Jay Fleck ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.

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With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?

Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)