A beautiful story of healing and strength.
A stuffed fox becomes broken in a storm.
Emi and her stuffed fox live and play high on a Japanese mountain under a ginkgo tree. One day, when the first ginkgo leaf turns gold, a huge storm hits. The wind and rain bring down one of the tree branches and snatch the fox up into the midst of the storm, casting it down far away. Torn and broken and with a yellow ginkgo leaf in its pocket, the fox sits alone longing for home. Soon, it is found and brought to Kiko, a young girl in a wheelchair, who cleans and mends the fox with golden thread. Over the next year, Kiko and the fox play, heal, and become happy together. When autumn comes around again, it brings golden ginkgo leaves, and Kiko must decide if she should return the fox to his home. Del Rizzo creates a beautiful story inspired by the Japanese art form of kintsugi, mending broken pottery with gold. Feelings of brokenness, being unwanted, healing, and happiness are told from the fox’s point of view. Illustrator Sato adds intricate 3-D imagery constructed from cut paper, fabrics, and other materials. The little details, like Kiko’s leg healing over the year and the kintsugi pottery in both girls’ homes, add to the charm of the story. All characters are Japanese, with some Japanese incorporated into the text.
A beautiful story of healing and strength. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77147-360-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Owlkids Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.
In this latest in the series, Little Blue Truck, driven by pal Toad, is challenged to a countryside race by Racer Red, a sleek, low-slung vehicle.
Blue agrees, and the race is on. Although the two start off “hood to hood / and wheel to wheel,” they switch positions often as they speed their way over dusty country roads. Blue’s farm friends follow along to share in the excitement and shout out encouragement; adult readers will have fun voicing the various animal sounds. Short rhyming verses on each page and several strategic page turns add drama to the narrative, but soft, mottled effects in the otherwise colorful illustrations keep the competition from becoming too intense. Racer Red crosses the finish line first, but Blue is a gracious loser, happy to have worked hard. That’s a new concept for Racer Red, who’s laser-focused on victory but takes Blue’s words (“win or lose, it’s fun to try!”) to heart—a revelation that may lead to worthwhile storytime discussions. When Blue’s farm animal friends hop into the truck for the ride home, Racer Red tags along and learns a second lesson, one about speed. “Fast is fun, / and slow is too, / as long as you’re / with friends.”
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063387843
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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