bookshelf

PUT YOURSELF IN MY SHOES

Name: PUT YOURSELF IN MY SHOES
Author: Susanna Isern
ISBN: 978-84-17673-37-6

by Susanna Isern ; illustrated by Mylène Rigaudie ; translated by Ben Dawlatly ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 2020

Empowers children to stop and consider others.

bookshelf

An empathetic Spanish import.

After a long winter, Cricket is excited to venture out and go for a walk in his neighborhood. He first comes across Ladybug, who is frantically looking for a newly washed spot that had been hanging up to dry and has disappeared from the line. Cricket proclaims: “I don’t wear any spots. I don’t think they’re that important,” and leaves without helping. Next, he sees Bee, who has gotten her wing tangled with fishing line. Cricket scoffs: “I hardly ever use my wings. I don’t think they’re that important,” and continues to walk. Spider is desperately trying to finish making silk before he opens his store for business. Cricket huffs: “I never buy balls of silk. I don’t think they’re that important.” Cricket, oblivious to the needs of others, is only concerned with himself. Each friend, in turn, helps another while Cricket strolls back home. But when Cricket’s strings break on his violin and Flea echoes Cricket’s own words: “I don’t play the violin. I don’t think it’s that important,” Cricket realizes his mistake. It would be easy to slide into a predictable, pedantic conclusion, but Isern instead chooses an earnest, heartwarming turn. Rigaudie’s close-up look at this pastel insect world makes lesson-learning all the more inviting. Tiny details delight: not just the insects’ many shoes, but puffs of steam emanating from cups of tea and Ladybug’s tiny clothespins. The Spanish-language original publishes simultaneously. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.8-by-19.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 50.8% of actual size.)

Empowers children to stop and consider others. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020

ISBN: 978-84-17673-37-6

Page Count: 40

Publisher: NubeOcho

Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LITTLE MAGICIAN
by Susanna Isern ; illustrated by Amélie Graux

- BOOK REVIEW
SQUIRREL HAS TROUBLE SAYING NO
by Susanna Isern ; illustrated by Leire Salaberria ; translated by Cecilia Ross

- BOOK REVIEW
A MYSTERY IN THE FOREST
by Susanna Isern ; illustrated by Daniel Montero Galán ; translated by Jon Brokenbrow

bookshelf

CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

bookshelf

A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

bookshelf

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...

bookshelf

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)