An imaginative peek at colorful monsters.
Creatures from Peruvian folklore try, unsuccessfully, to haunt a young reader.
What is a poor spirit to do with a little girl like Benita? Cuco, a creature who appears in the brown-skinned, pigtailed young girl’s bedroom one night, can’t get a scare out of her. Instead, Benita throws the monster a lollipop and continues reading her book. So Cuco enlists other creatures, including green Tunche, black cat Yanapuma, and horned spirit Supay. One by one they appear and are shushed by the girl. (“Cuco and Tunche were shocked! Who did this child think she was?”) The child eventually screams at the group: “CAN’T YOU ALL BE QUIET? DON’T YOU SEE I’M READING A BOOK?” The book wins out; by story’s end Benita is reading to the becalmed creatures, with “stories and pictures frolicking in front of their eyes, creating some sort of enchanted magic….Reading magic!” This brief book charms, with each spirit distinct and beautifully imagined in the simple art that relies on bright, flat colors. An author’s note reveals that Llanos grew up during “a violent time” in Peru but that books were her escape. Information about the night creatures Benita meets and facts about Peru close out this tale. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An imaginative peek at colorful monsters. (illustrator’s note) (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9798888590027
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Barefoot Books
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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
Making friends isn’t always this easy and convenient.
How do you make a new friend when an old one moves away?
Buddy (from Sorry, Grown-Ups, You Can’t Go to School, 2019, etc.) is feeling lonely. His best friend just moved across town. To make matters worse, there is a field trip coming up, and Buddy needs a bus partner. His sister, Lady, has some helpful advice for making a new pal: “You just need to find something you have in common.” Buddy loves the game Robo Chargers and karate. Surely there is someone else who does, too! Unfortunately, there isn’t. However, when a new student arrives (one day later) and asks everyone to call her Sunny instead of Alison, Buddy gets excited. No one uses his given name, either; they just call him Buddy. He secretly whispers his “real, official name” to Sunny at lunch—an indication that a true friendship is being formed. The rest of the story plods merrily along, all pieces falling exactly into place (she even likes Robo Chargers!), accompanied by Bowers’ digital art, a mix of spot art and full-bleed illustrations. Friendship-building can be an emotionally charged event in a child’s life—young readers will certainly see themselves in Buddy’s plight—but, alas, there is not much storytelling magic to be found. Buddy and his family are White, Sunny and Mr. Teacher are Black, and Buddy’s other classmates are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Making friends isn’t always this easy and convenient. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-30709-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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