A compelling, immersive, and wholly empathetic musing on home.
A blue van is home for a young child.
Old Blue is both a cozy living space and an opportunity for adventure, keeping the family safe as they roam the country from town to the mountains and beyond. Scenes of the family playing cards in the back of the vehicle while it rains outside and eating soup around a cozy campfire are depicted in soft, impressionistic watercolors, dominated by blues, golds, and oranges. It’s clear that the young protagonist, who narrates, feels sheltered here. Yet the child also longs for a “forever home,” especially when ostracized by classmates for this unusual living situation. The youngster finds comfort snuggling with Mama and exploring nature. Leaning into imaginative play, the child truly feels peaceful. An especially moving spread depicts the child cross-legged on the roof of the parked van, hair blown back by the wind, arms outstretched: “I’m never lonely when I imagine I belong to the wind.” Expertly capturing a child’s perspective, Judge’s matter-of-fact text is tinged with deep emotion—this is both a paean to a temporary home and a wish for more. Her sumptuous illustrations glow with warmth, inviting readers to linger. In the backmatter, Judge explains that the story stems from her own childhood experiences and provides information on housing insecurity, which will help adults explain the concept to children. Characters are light-skinned.
A compelling, immersive, and wholly empathetic musing on home. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 8, 2025
ISBN: 9781419771521
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: yesterday
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
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child...
Imani endures the insults heaped upon her by the other village children, but she never gives up her dreams.
The Masai girl is tiny compared to the other children, but she is full of imagination and perseverance. Luckily, she has a mother who believes in her and tells her stories that will fuel that imagination. Mama tells her about the moon goddess, Olapa, who wins over the sun god. She tells Imani about Anansi, the trickster spider who vanquishes a larger snake. (Troublingly, the fact that Anansi is a West African figure, not of the Masai, goes unaddressed in both text and author’s note.) Inspired, the tiny girl tries to find new ways to achieve her dream: to touch the moon. One day, after crashing to the ground yet again when her leafy wings fail, she is ready to forget her hopes. That night, she witnesses the adumu, the special warriors’ jumping dance. Imani wakes the next morning, determined to jump to the moon. After jumping all day, she reaches the moon, meets Olapa and receives a special present from the goddess, a small moon rock. Now she becomes the storyteller when she relates her adventure to Mama. The watercolor-and-graphite illustrations have been enhanced digitally, and the night scenes of storytelling and fantasy with their glowing stars and moons have a more powerful impact than the daytime scenes, with their blander colors.
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child to be admired. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-934133-57-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Mackinac Island Press
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
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