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YOUR ALIEN RETURNS

Name: YOUR ALIEN RETURNS
Author: Tammi Sauer
ISBN: 978-1-4549-1130-2

by Tammi Sauer ; illustrated by Goro Fujita ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 4, 2016

A worthy tale of friendship that will have every reader wishing for a little green buddy.

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It’s an interstellar play date with your alien!

“When you least expect it, something special will get your attention. / Your alien will be back.” After getting permission from distracted parents, the “you” in the tale, a brown-haired, olive-skinned child in a blue jersey and jeans, hops into the alien’s flying saucer. Once on the alien’s home world, the protagonist meets the alien’s family and has a snack. “You’ll sample a few things but will politely decline anything that stares back at you.” They play, tool around town on scooters, go out for ice cream–like things, and meet the alien’s friends. “Seeing all of them will make you feel a little alienated,” the wry text states. The strangeness has started to get to the child. When an accidental kick ruins a big game, the child couldn’t feel worse. Fortunately the alien knows just what to do. Sauer and Fujita team up again for this sequel to their sweet E.T. tale, Your Alien (2015), and allow readers to tag along with the pals into the next phase of the ultimate in long-distance friendships. Simple, declarative text makes good use of the second person. Fujita’s bright, color-saturated illustrations are again the perfect pairing, from the inventive alien landscapes to the expressive characters and the cinematic framing.

A worthy tale of friendship that will have every reader wishing for a little green buddy. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4549-1130-2

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Sterling

Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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ALL KINDS OF SPECIAL
by Tammi Sauer ; illustrated by Fernando Martin

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THE UNDERPANTS
by Tammi Sauer ; illustrated by Joren Cull

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MARY HAD A LITTLE PLAN
by Tammi Sauer ; illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton

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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.

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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

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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)