A friend is a friend, and while the twist is clever, the robust storytelling throughout will prove the book’s greatest lure.
The imaginary-friend trope gets turned on its head.
Told mostly in first person, this story follows a large furry green creature and a small Black girl who are engaged in a series of adventures. “When you have a great friend, the rest of the world can seem to disappear.” Together the two laugh and play, are brave together, and get in trouble. Others say that the friend is imaginary, but our narrator isn’t so sure. And then, one day, the friend is unexpectedly gone. Now it becomes clear that the narrator wasn’t the girl but the newly morose and lonely monster. “She was real to me.” In time our narrator makes friends with other creatures and once more has adventures and misadventures. Even so, the protagonist never forgets their first friend. It is a testament to Figueroa’s talents that while the main character may be furry, the heartbreak and longing they exude feel achingly real, as does the friendship at the center of the story. In the latter half of the book, Lê elegantly repeats phrases and cadences that appeared in the first half (thereby linking the new friends to the old), but it’s Figueroa’s lush, electric, pulsating hues and colors that bring the worldbuilding to life, with jewel tones depicting bright sunny days and illuminated nights. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A friend is a friend, and while the twist is clever, the robust storytelling throughout will prove the book’s greatest lure. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-37749-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
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
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
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