A delightful ode to the curiosity of childhood.
Penelope and her mother live in the city, where there are sounds on every corner, but what will become of Penelope now that she’s heard a new, almost magical sound?
Penelope, a young girl with light-brown skin and hair in a single Afro puff, joins her mother on a walk to the farmers market. Along the way, they stop to enjoy a saxophonist on the street corner, a drummer in the subway, a guitarist in the park, and a cellist playing from inside a building. When they arrive at the farmers market, Penelope becomes fascinated by pleasant music riding the air that she can’t identify. She follows the sounds until she finds a violinist; enraptured, she declares, “I’m going to make that music too.” Penelope’s curiosity about music and the world around her rings true. The illustrations offer a pleasant, cartoonlike feel and plenty of details to bring character to this bustling, diverse city. Hilariously, three rats are drawn on the subway tracks, giving young readers an “I spy” opportunity and adults a chuckle. This will be an excellent book for picture walks with very young children, who will be drawn to the bright colors and busy pages. The text, alas, falters a bit, incorporating clunky onomatopoeia that doesn’t always provide a good imitation of the instruments they describe—does a bow drawn across a cello’s strings really sound like “pluck-pluck-pluck”?
A delightful ode to the curiosity of childhood. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: April 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-8075-3670-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings.
The Crayons head back to class in this latest series entry.
Daywalt’s expository text lays out the basics as various Crayons wave goodbye to the beach, choose a first-day outfit, greet old friends, and make new ones. As in previous outings, the perennially droll illustrations and hand-lettered Crayon-speak drive the humor. The ever wrapperless Peach, opining, “What am I going to wear?” surveys three options: top hat and tails, a chef’s toque and apron, and a Santa suit. New friends Chunky Toddler Crayon (who’s missing a bite-sized bit of their blue point) and Husky Toddler Crayon speculate excitedly on their common last name: “I wonder if we’re related!” White Crayon, all but disappearing against the page’s copious white space, sits cross-legged reading a copy of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man. And Yellow and Orange, notable for their previous existential argument about the color of the sun, find agreement in science class: Jupiter, clearly, is yellow AND orange. Everybody’s excited about art class—“Even if they make a mess. Actually…ESPECIALLY if they make a mess!” Here, a spread of crayoned doodles of butterflies, hearts, and stars is followed by one with fulsome scribbles. Fans of previous outings will spot cameos from Glow in the Dark and yellow-caped Esteban (the Crayon formerly known as Pea Green). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 9780593621110
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
BOOK REVIEW
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