A sympathetic exploration of the dance between agency and anxiety in conquering a common childhood fear.
In this Danish import, a child is certain there’s a monster in the attic.
Creepy monster faces and claws border some of the pages, show up in shadows, and are visible to the young narrator when the child’s eyes are closed. Most of the monochromatic settings are rendered in gray-browns. A few details appear in color: the youngster’s pinkish face and ruddy cheeks, small objects. Despite the menacing beasts conjured in the child’s imagination, there are cozy retreats, and although the mother admits that her offspring’s monster drawing is pretty scary, she explains that the overhead noise is just an animal “building a hidey-hole.” Their conversations contain wry humor. When invited to investigate, the child is too busy. “ ‘Busy doing what?’ Mom asks. ‘Something.’ I say.” Ultimately, the protagonist braves the steps to discover a pleasant space with “fun things.” The parent unearths a trumpet to add to the child’s one-man-band attempts to drown out the offending sounds. The concluding garret scene reveals a small pink monster mirroring the pose in the child’s drawing. The creature is wearing a striped shirt, spotted pants, and horned hat, just like the protagonist—food for thought. Birkjær’s portrayal of a supportive mother (who never panders) and Juul’s visual narrative depicting emotional growth in a subtle, inventive manner—starting with the contrasting endpapers—offer a refreshing departure from stories with similar themes. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A sympathetic exploration of the dance between agency and anxiety in conquering a common childhood fear. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9781945492747
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Transit Books
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
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
A valuable asset to the library of a child who experiences anxiety and a great book to get children talking about their...
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)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0237-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
