On discouraging days, this book will help readers find their place in the world with greater love for themselves and others.
Page after page of gentle affirmations to support self-acceptance and resolve self-doubts.
After drawing an imagined adventure, a slicker-clad elementary-age kid leaves a house nestled in a small community and journeys to a nearby woodland. Soothing sentence pairs follow a predictable pattern: “It is not how far you traveled. / It is the journey that you took.” Along the way, the protagonist, who has brown hair and light beige skin, is joined by two neighbors, a brown-skinned child with glasses and black curly hair tucked under a hat and an extremely pale White kid with blond hair. Throughout the day, they plan, scavenge, build, and finally enjoy a clubhouse under a huge tree. “It is not being a hero. / It is being part of a team. // It is not putting up walls. / It is about building a dream.” All the while, the children are surrounded by trees shown in richly colored realistic images—with just a touch of fantasy—standing out against a white background. Fairies, gnomes in pointed hats, and anthropomorphic rocks, flowers, animals, and insects are never far from the action. (Humanoid figures are diverse.) At the end of the day, the children’s story emphasizes a positive sense of self and optimism for what the journey tomorrow will bring. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 82% of actual size.)
On discouraging days, this book will help readers find their place in the world with greater love for themselves and others. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-31183-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child...
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)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-934133-57-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Mackinac Island Press
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
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