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THE MAGIC BOAT

Name: THE MAGIC BOAT
Author: Kit Pearson
ISBN: 978-1-4598-1432-5

by Kit Pearson & Katherine Farris ; illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 19, 2019

Infectiously delightful.

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A shy girl bonds with new friends through the wonders of imagination in this Canadian collaboration.

Ellie spends the summer with her grandmother at the beach. Too nervous to approach the other children, the young white girl keeps mostly to herself making sand castles and playing in the cool water until, while collecting pebbles, she happens upon Piper, an older girl of color who has a magic boat. Ellie is skeptical at first, but her doubts disappear as Piper takes them out to sea, racing on the water and surrounded by marine life. Moments later, the girls are flying as the boat turns into a balloon, and they share the sky with several birds and an intrepid ladybug. That is, until Nonna calls the pair to lunch. Pearson and Farris’ prose moves seamlessly from the easy unhurriedness of summer play to the weightier awe of discovery. Grimard keeps visual pace with warm watercolors and pencil-sketched shading and lines that feel light but never fluffy, capturing the dynamic fluidity between real and pretend. The illustrations do, at times, feel as though they are missing some elements mentioned in the text—the emphasis on discovery prompts readers to scour the pages for the wildlife being mentioned, for instance. But an overall and well-developed theme of imagination and connection (even when you’re nervous) far outweighs the small gaps.

Infectiously delightful. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: March 19, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-4598-1432-5

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Orca

Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

- BOOK REVIEW
AWAKE AND DREAMING
by Kit Pearson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LIGHTS GO ON AGAIN
by Kit Pearson

- BOOK REVIEW
LOOKING AT THE MOON
by Kit Pearson

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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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RUBY FINDS A WORRY

From the Big Bright Feelings series

by Tom Percival ; illustrated by Tom Percival ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019

A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their...

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Ruby is an adventurous and happy child until the day she discovers a Worry.

Ruby barely sees the Worry—depicted as a blob of yellow with a frowny unibrow—at first, but as it hovers, the more she notices it and the larger it grows. The longer Ruby is affected by this Worry, the fewer colors appear on the page. Though she tries not to pay attention to the Worry, which no one else can see, ignoring it prevents her from enjoying the things that she once loved. Her constant anxiety about the Worry causes the bright yellow blob to crowd Ruby’s everyday life, which by this point is nearly all washes of gray and white. But at the playground, Ruby sees a boy sitting on a bench with a growing sky-blue Worry of his own. When she invites the boy to talk, his Worry begins to shrink—and when Ruby talks about her own Worry, it also grows smaller. By the book’s conclusion, Ruby learns to control her Worry by talking about what worries her, a priceless lesson for any child—or adult—conveyed in a beautifully child-friendly manner. Ruby presents black, with hair in cornrows and two big afro-puff pigtails, while the boy has pale skin and spiky black hair.

A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their feelings (. (Picture book. 4-6)