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WILD FOR WINNIE

Name: WILD FOR WINNIE
Author: Laura Marx Fitzgerald
ISBN: 978-0-593-11181-9

by Laura Marx Fitzgerald ; illustrated by Jenny Løvlie ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 5, 2022

Caregivers of “antsy” kids will glean some helpful tips, but young readers won’t go wild for this one.

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A new student’s unusual behavior bewilders her classmates.

Winnie, a White redheaded girl, is “no ordinary kid,” opines the narrator, an unnamed and unidentified child in Winnie’s class. She howls “like a hyena” at circle time, kicks “like a kangaroo” at storytime, and chomps “like a piranha” on another student’s arm at lunch. Undaunted, her Black-presenting teacher suggests that “maybe Winnie sees and hears and feels the world differently than most of us” and proposes that everyone give Winnie’s “world” a whirl. In Løvlie’s cheery, colorful, pastel-hued double-page spreads, racially, physically, and ability diverse classmates joyfully join Winnie in activities that regulate her animal-themed antics. If she's “monkeying around” on the furniture, everyone joins her on the jungle gym at recess; when she’s acting “pretty squirrelly,” the other students go “nuts” with her on an indoor toy obstacle course; and so on. Unfortunately, more complex idioms such as “bull in a china shop” may fly over young readers’ heads without further explanation. Gradually, the narrator realizes that Winnie is ordinary after all: “Sometimes we all feel the world differently.” Fitzgerald’s message is well intentioned, but in this plotless story, Winnie feels more like an object lesson than a person, which may alienate readers who experience the world in similar ways. Although Winnie’s behavior is left unexplained, a closing author’s note to caregivers alludes to sensory processing disorder and presents additional activities targeting balance, body awareness, and more.(This book was reviewed digitally.)

Caregivers of “antsy” kids will glean some helpful tips, but young readers won’t go wild for this one. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: April 5, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-593-11181-9

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Dial Books

Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022

Categories:

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

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GALLERY
by Laura Marx Fitzgerald

- BOOK REVIEW
UNDER THE EGG
by Laura Marx Fitzgerald

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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)