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THE BIRTHDAY OF THE WORLD

Name: THE BIRTHDAY OF THE WORLD
Author: Rachel Naomi Remen
ISBN: 978-1-951836-34-4

A STORY ABOUT FINDING LIGHT IN EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING

by Rachel Naomi Remen ; illustrated by Rachell Sumpter ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 6, 2022

This visually stirring but heavy-handed attempt to teach children empathy and awareness falls flat.

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On a child’s fourth birthday, their favorite person in the world, their grandfather, tells them what happened when the world was born.

As the grandfather tells the story, a page turn takes readers from a mainly dark page with a picture of a birthday cake to a stunning kaleidoscope of color. “A great ray of light” brings darkness to an end, and sparks fall into the world and into everything in it. A multicolored spread showing a diverse collection of living beings, each with their own spark, conveys the grandfather’s story in dazzling colors and engaging details. Unfortunately, the text does not have the same charm. The phrasing doesn’t flow; rather, beings are listed: boys, girls, dogs, rabbits, plants, trees, etc. The grandfather then explains that these sparks are still within us, but “We can’t see them with our eyes / We can only see them with our hearts”—a line that feels too similar to the famous quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince (1943). Though the painterly images are beautiful, making stunning use of color and light, the text is preachy as it details what people can do to make their sparks and the sparks of others shine more brightly. The child and their grandfather are light-skinned and cued Jewish; other characters are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

This visually stirring but heavy-handed attempt to teach children empathy and awareness falls flat. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-951836-34-4

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Cameron Kids

Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S RELIGIOUS FICTION

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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

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

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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)