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A PICTURE DAY TO REMEMBER

Name: A PICTURE DAY TO REMEMBER
Author: Natalia Paruzel-Gibson
ISBN: 9781605377285

by Natalia Paruzel-Gibson ; illustrated by Nynke Boelens ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 7, 2023

Emotionally unsuccessful.

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Some children dread picture day.

Lola wears her big, floppy red hat every day. It’s so large that it covers her entire face, which is exactly what Lola wants. Her teacher warns her not to bump into anything, but her hat is a necessary shield against embarrassment. But today, Lola realizes that she’s made a mistake and come to school on picture day (something she’s avoided since kindergarten). When the class sets up for their group photo, Lola accidentally ends up right in the middle, and her hat blocks her classmates’ faces. When she moves to the back corner, the photographer still asks to see her face. She finally throws it off to reveal what she’s been trying to hides this entire time—freckles covering her face. The class is silent until a friendly boy, Nassim, shares an idea. When the class gets their photo a few weeks later, they see the memorable results. Text-heavy pages feel overdone with figurative comparisons. The illustrations are simple enough, with what looks like paint washes and pencil markings. Boelens often chooses a very wide lens, and the excessive distance separates readers from the character physically as well as emotionally. An Asian-presenting teacher leads the diverse class, which includes light-skinned Lola and tan-skinned Nassim. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Emotionally unsuccessful. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 7, 2023

ISBN: 9781605377285

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Clavis

Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
SOMETHING LOST SOMETHING FOUND
by Natalia Paruzel-Gibson ; illustrated by Laura Catrinella

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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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TINY T. REX AND THE IMPOSSIBLE HUG

by Jonathan Stutzman ; illustrated by Jay Fleck ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.

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With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?

Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)