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BEFORE AND AFTER BABY

A valuable book that makes PPD easier to discuss, showing children they’re not alone.

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A child copes with her mother’s postpartum depression in Blackwell’s debut picture book.

Before Andy’s new baby brother arrives, everything in her family seems happy, and her parents are quick to assure her that accidents and mistakes are normal and easily forgivable after a bicycle kerfuffle. Together, the family of three sings, enjoys bath time, reads stories, and snuggles before bed. “But After Baby, nothing feels the same,” Andy explains. Mommy sinks into postpartum depression (PPD), which adult readers may recognize immediately, but for Andy and young readers it feels like an inexplicable and frightening change. After Andy helps comfort the baby, she talks to her parents about her mother’s condition. Mommy compares her emotions to Andy’s frightening bicycle ride: Everything feels chaotic and out of control, but none of that is Andy or the baby’s fault. Although Mommy’s struggle may be scary for children to read about, Blackwell depicts all the family members with sympathy, using Andy’s voice to keep the words simple even though the emotions are complex. Wong’s ink and watercolor illustrations move the story forward, sharply contrasting “before” Mommy’s coloration with a gray-hued Mommy as depression sets in. Colors for the whole family are muted after baby’s arrival until a final image shows possibilities for them moving forward as they are all patient and Mommy works to get better.

A valuable book that makes PPD easier to discuss, showing children they’re not alone.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025

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BECAUSE I HAD A TEACHER

A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.

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A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.

This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.

A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 1, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Compendium

Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

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

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