This exuberant vehicle will expand the thinking of those just beginning to comprehend clocks and calendars.
A series of thoughtful metaphors and diverse characters takes viewers through the manifold dimensions of time.
In how to (2013), Morstad playfully portrays concepts both invisible (the breeze, bravery) and discernible (washing socks). In this companion volume, she tackles time. Like a spiderweb, time is difficult to see; like cut hair, it disappears after growth. Minutes move slowly at school and speed by as a wave knocks over a sand castle. Morstad’s lyrical language is perfectly paced: “Time is a song. / Dancing you quick!” These lines are paired with three solitary figures in dresses, each superimposed on itself several times in variations of movement and tonality. Across the gutter, the text reads: “Or pulling you, / long and stretching, / slow and low, / to the sound of a cello.” Here a Black child is shown in an interlocking sequence of nine steps, each iteration contributing to a rainbow effect. Assorted colors (with a cheerful magenta playing a prominent role), sizes, and patterns create visual pleasure and make the abstract concrete, while solid, spacious backgrounds prompt contemplation. The spread showing that “Time is a sunbeam…” contrasts a sleeping cat in the warm shadows cast by plants at a sunlit window with the facing page’s black silhouettes and a repositioned animal absorbing changed light.
This exuberant vehicle will expand the thinking of those just beginning to comprehend clocks and calendars. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6754-1
Page Count: 56
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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
A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers.
Echoing the meter of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Ward uses catchy original rhymes to describe the variety of nests birds create.
Each sweet stanza is complemented by a factual, engaging description of the nesting habits of each bird. Some of the notes are intriguing, such as the fact that the hummingbird uses flexible spider web to construct its cup-shaped nest so the nest will stretch as the chicks grow. An especially endearing nesting behavior is that of the emperor penguin, who, with unbelievable patience, incubates the egg between his tummy and his feet for up to 60 days. The author clearly feels a mission to impart her extensive knowledge of birds and bird behavior to the very young, and she’s found an appealing and attractive way to accomplish this. The simple rhymes on the left page of each spread, written from the young bird’s perspective, will appeal to younger children, and the notes on the right-hand page of each spread provide more complex factual information that will help parents answer further questions and satisfy the curiosity of older children. Jenkins’ accomplished collage illustrations of common bird species—woodpecker, hummingbird, cowbird, emperor penguin, eagle, owl, wren—as well as exotics, such as flamingoes and hornbills, are characteristically naturalistic and accurate in detail.
A good bet for the youngest bird-watchers. (author’s note, further resources) (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-2116-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
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