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THE WORRY BOX

Name: THE WORRY BOX
Author: Suzanne Chiew
ISBN: 978-1-68010-083-9

by Suzanne Chiew ; illustrated by Sean Julian ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2018

An alternative to worry dolls for anxious children.

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Murray learns to not let his worries get in the way of living life.

Murray Bear’s big sister, Molly, has agreed to meet her friend Oliver, a rabbit, at the waterfall to play. But Murray is afraid of the waterfall and doesn’t want to go. Molly gently addresses his concerns and then shows him her worry box, where she places slips of paper that list her worries. “When my worries are in the box, they don’t stop me from having fun.” Murray adds his concern to the box and then puts the whole thing in his backpack. Murray’s worried feelings are still apparent to readers as the two bears approach the rendezvous, but he has the courage he needs to enjoy playing…until Oliver’s friend Lily arrives and provokes more worries about making new friends. Murray puts them in his worry box and has a grand time, and he’s even able to help Lily when she has a big worry of her own. Julian’s animals are lightly anthropomorphized—they wear no clothing, but their home has books and art supplies, they sometimes walk on two legs, their fears match those of young children, and the facial expressions and body language will be familiar.

An alternative to worry dolls for anxious children. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: March 1, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-68010-083-9

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Tiger Tales

Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR
by Suzanne Chiew ; illustrated by Caroline Pedler

- BOOK REVIEW
FRIENDS TO THE RESCUE
by Suzanne Chiew ; illustrated by Caroline Pedler

- BOOK REVIEW
WHEN YOU NEED A FRIEND
by Suzanne Chiew ; illustrated by Caroline Pedler

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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

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

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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CLAYMATES

by Dev Petty ; illustrated by Lauren Eldridge ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 20, 2017

The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted...

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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)