Children can expand on the ideas in this slight celebration of weather; strong backmatter will answer their questions.
A group of racially diverse children show their appreciation for the rain in this series entry.
Each book of the I Like the Weather series starts with the title declaration and a statement as to how that weather “speaks” to an unidentified first-person child narrator: “I like the rain— / pitter-patting through the green, / washing all the petals clean, / tapping on my nose and cheeks. / This is how the rain speaks.” The text then goes on to describe the different activities to enjoy in the rain—splashing in puddles, listening to thunder, and seeing a rainbow. The cheery, soft-edged cartoon illustrations depict all this and add details, such as floating a paper boat in a puddle and taking shelter before a storm. While the rhythms are spot-on (and identical) across all four books, the rhymes are looser: sheets with streaks; cushions with oceans. A backmatter spread in each book gives child-appropriate, easy-to-understand science-based answers to four weather-related questions, including: “What are lightning and thunder”; “Why does wind blow?”; “Why does the sun feel hotter in summer?”; and “Why is snow white?” The final question is always “How does the ___ help us?” Few adults are depicted even when children are in or near bodies of water, and two children on a boat wear rain gear but no life jackets. A single scene in I Like the Wind shows a secondary character in a wheelchair; a primary character throughout wears glasses. (This book was reviewed digitally with 7.9-by-15.8-inch double-page spreads viewed at 44.2% of actual size.)
Children can expand on the ideas in this slight celebration of weather; strong backmatter will answer their questions. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 8, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64686-098-2
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
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
Parent-child love and affection, appealingly presented, with the added attraction of the seasonal content and lack of gender...
A polar-bear parent speaks poetically of love for a child.
A genderless adult and cub travel through the landscapes of an arctic year. Each of the softly rendered double-page paintings has a very different feel and color palette as the pair go through the seasons, walking through wintry ice and snow and green summer meadows, cavorting in the blue ocean, watching whales, and playing beside musk oxen. The rhymes of the four-line stanzas are not forced, as is the case too often in picture books of this type: “When cold, winter winds / blow the leaves far and wide, / You’ll cross the great icebergs / with me by your side.” On a dark, snowy night, the loving parent says: “But for now, cuddle close / while the stars softly shine. // I’ll always be yours, / and you’ll always be mine.” As the last illustration shows the pair curled up for sleep, young listeners will be lulled to sweet dreams by the calm tenor of the pictures and the words. While far from original, this timeless theme is always in demand, and the combination of delightful illustrations and poetry that scans well make this a good choice for early-childhood classrooms, public libraries, and one-on-one home read-alouds.
Parent-child love and affection, appealingly presented, with the added attraction of the seasonal content and lack of gender restrictions. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68010-070-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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