Lyrical language and realistic illustrations honor the natural world and a loving relationship.
A timeless story about being one with nature.
Although set in Scotland, this story could occur anywhere with tree-covered hills and valleys, deer, and humans with caring hearts. In the rural home of an unnamed boy and his mother, both with ginger hair and pale complexions, drawings of the animals the boy has helped and a bookcase full of field guides dominate a wall. The boy is clearly at home in the wild, and when he finds an abandoned fawn, naturally he brings her home to care for. His mother sets the limits: “She can stay till she is strong, / but the wild is where fawns belong.” While spring turns to summer, then to fall, the boy and deer, named Alba, are happy and inseparable. When the fawn returns to the wild, the dejected “boy sits silent, alone as the moon” beneath a pine tree, his head bowed on his arms. A sudden storm, gently but effectively evoked in both text and delicate line-and-color illustrations, sends the boy racing through the woods, “for he knows roaring storms / do not care about gentle fawns.” The boy is soon lost, but his once-helpless fawn “leaps, / from fallen tree to slippery stone” to become the boy’s rescuer and comforter. Terms specific to the Scottish countryside, like burn and glen, will prompt discussion, as should the caution to leave actual wild animals undisturbed.
Lyrical language and realistic illustrations honor the natural world and a loving relationship. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-78250-713-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Floris
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
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
Handy advice for perpetually inquisitive children.
Interior decorator and TV personality Gaines invites readers to open their eyes and exercise their imaginations.
There’s a world to be explored out there—and only children can really take part. What does “looking for wonder” entail? Slowing down and looking up, around, and everywhere. At the outset, a group of eager, racially diverse young friends—including one who uses a wheelchair—are fully prepared for a grand adventure. They offer tips about how and where to look: Why, there’s a “grand parade” of marching ants! And, these kids add, perspective is key. A rainy day might signal gloom to some, but to those filled with wonder, showers bring “magic puddles for play”; a forest is “an enchanted world,” the ocean conceals “a spectacular city,” and the night sky boasts “extraordinary sights.” The takeaway: “Wonder is never in short supply.” It’s a robust, empowering message, as is the exhortation to “keep your mind open, and let curiosity guide the way.” Youngsters are also advised to share their discoveries. The upbeat narrative is delivered in clunky verse, but the colorful cartoonish illustrations brimming with activity and good cheer (including some adorable anthropomorphized animals in the backgrounds) make up for the textual lapses and should motivate readers to embark on their own “wonder explorations.”
Handy advice for perpetually inquisitive children. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781400247417
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tommy Nelson
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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