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THE WOLF WHO LEARNED TO BE GOOD

Name: THE WOLF WHO LEARNED TO BE GOOD
Author: Natalia Moore
ISBN: 978-0-8075-9204-5

by Natalia Moore ; illustrated by Natalia Moore ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2017

Friends are better as friends than food.

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Wolves are big and, typically, bad, writes Moore. “They just can’t help themselves.” Then there are the atypical wolves.

Protagonist Wolf is trying hard—and failing—to fight the genetic impulse. He wants to be good. That might be pushing it. He wants to have a friend. It’s lonely out there in the woods. But his attempts at winning friends fall flat. Smiling gets him nowhere. He throws a surprise party and, boy, are the guests surprised. He sits on a log, tears welling in his eyes. “What’s the matter?” asks a little girl who smells “of honey and cinnamon.” She has brown skin and straight brown hair, a turquoise coat, yellow boots, head tilted just so—delicious. But the little girl reaches into “her bag of wonders” and gets “to work on Wolf.” Wolf finds that the little girl is fun: she gives him a pedicure, she gives his matted hair a makeover. But she is not about to be Wolf’s carpet. When Wolf reverts to bullying and selfishness, the girl takes a walk. Wolf is alone again, but now he has a dawning of self-awareness. He feels guilt. He finds the little girl in another part of the woods, sheepishly apologizes, and their friendship is rekindled. Moore has caught the strange and rocky road to making friends; her mixed-media artwork dances between fierce and funny, maintaining a deft balance.

Friends are better as friends than food. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-8075-9204-5

Page Count: 37

Publisher: Whitman

Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
HOME FOR A WHILE
by Lauren H. Kerstein ; illustrated by Natalia Moore

- BOOK REVIEW
CHEER
by Uncle Ian Aurora ; illustrated by Natalia Moore

- BOOK REVIEW
STOMP
by Uncle Ian Aurora ; illustrated by Natalia Moore

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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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IMANI'S MOON

by JaNay Brown-Wood ; illustrated by Hazel Mitchell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 14, 2014

While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child...

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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)