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CAMILLA, SUPER HELPER

Name: CAMILLA, SUPER HELPER
Author: Julie Dillemuth
ISBN: 9781433841934

by Julie Dillemuth ; illustrated by Laura Wood ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 16, 2023

Winsome lessons in problem-solving and collaboration.

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Helpful friends make mighty superheroes.

Camilla, a wild boar, and Parsley, her porcupine neighbor, are discussing superpowers when their honeybee friend Melli flies in through the window. She explains she’s been exhausted lately because flowers are so sparse that she and fellow hive mates must fly long distances for their nectar and pollen. Camilla comes up with a plan: establishing water stations and planting flowers in the forest. Melli and her fellow bees offer advice on station locations and which flowers to plant. Camilla, a keen cartographer, devises a map on which to mark the station setups, ensuring their proximity to the hive. Other forest animals pitch in, and a big party celebrates the work’s completion. At summer’s end, there’s more to cheer: Flowers bloom, the bees have stored lots of honey, and Melli has more visiting time. Parsley tells Camilla her “special powers” are “spatial,” with Melli adding that Camilla and Parsley are both “super.” Besides offering an introduction to spatial thinking, this story explores cooperation and bee conservation and teaches simple methods for assisting nature’s vital pollinators. Younger children likely won’t understand the calculations Camilla uses to create her map; those unfamiliar with metric measurements also might get confused. The colorful, lively illustrations are appealing; the animal protagonists are expressive and sympathetic. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Winsome lessons in problem-solving and collaboration. (note to parents & caregivers) (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: May 16, 2023

ISBN: 9781433841934

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Magination/American Psychological Association

Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
CAMILLA, CARTOGRAPHER
by Julie Dillemuth ; illustrated by Laura Wood

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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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IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

by Marilyn Sadler ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2024

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.

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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)