A warmhearted tribute to the spirit of altruism.
Everyone needs a good coat.
Nila loves “treasure hunting” at thrift stores with her mom. One day she finds the best coat—it’s pink with green hearts and has a perfectly gliding zipper. But last year’s coat still fits, so her mom tells her to put it back—though she tells Nila that she and her father can make the final decision. The next morning, Nila rushes for the school bus before her mom can remind her to grab her old coat. Nila notices that Lily doesn’t have a coat either. During recess, both girls are told to stay inside since it’s so cold. Nila asks Lily to play, but Lily seems distant. Nila spends the following weekend with her dad and buys the much-coveted coat. But when she sees a “for sale” sign by Lily’s house and her dad tells her that Lily’s family is “going through a hard time,” Nila considers her two coats—and makes a decision that allows everyone to go out for recess. With a lesson of putting other’s needs before one’s own desires, Paulson’s narrative is community-focused and stresses the importance of charity in a supportive—but never patronizing—way. Mola’s painterly and rustic-looking art fits the “thrifted” theme of the story. Nila, her parents, and Lily are light-skinned; the cast is diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A warmhearted tribute to the spirit of altruism. (information on the nonprofit One Warm Coat and how to hold a coat drive) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781506485812
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Beaming Books
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...
Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay.
A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive. A pair of hands descends, and soon, amid a flurry of squishing and prodding and poking and sculpting, a handsome gray wolf and a stately brown owl emerge. The hands disappear, leaving the friends to their own devices. The owl is pleased, but the wolf convinces it that the best is yet to come. An ear pulled here and an extra eye placed there, and before you can shake a carving stick, a spurt of frenetic self-exploration—expressed as a tangled black scribble—reveals a succession of smug hybrid beasts. After all, the opportunity to become a “pig-e-phant” doesn’t come around every day. But the sound of approaching footsteps panics the pair of Picassos. How are they going to “fix [them]selves” on time? Soon a hippopotamus and peacock are staring bug-eyed at a returning pair of astonished hands. The creative naiveté of the “clay mates” is perfectly captured by Petty’s feisty, spot-on dialogue: “This was your idea…and it was a BAD one.” Eldridge’s endearing sculpted images are photographed against the stark white background of an artist’s work table to great effect.
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted fun of their own . (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: June 20, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-316-30311-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2017
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