by Jami Gigot ; illustrated by Jami Gigot ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 21, 2024
There’s lots of fun to be had in your own backyard—and in this lively book.
It’s amazing what you’ll see when you step outside.
Whether you live in the country, the suburbs, or even the city, you’ll find plenty to explore in your backyard. There are forests to hike through (an accompanying image depicts a child gazing at backpack-wearing insects journeying through the grass) and workers making their way through busy streets (a cutaway illustration depicts an underground city populated by ants). You’ll find mountains (a child stares at a pile of dirt) and oceans, too, courtesy of a kiddie pool. Music? Just listen to the birds singing in the trees. Waterfalls? Turn on the hydrant in the summer. There are farms (community gardens), secret caves (tents made from quilts), and art galleries (sidewalk chalk drawings), too. When you think about it, almost any place can be a backyard—no matter where you live and regardless of the size of the space. As this story demonstrates, you don’t even need grass; all you really need are yards of imagination and a desire to see and do. And every backyard—no matter where—is filled with possibility. Sprightly, colorful digital illustrations and spare but stirring text brim with childlike creativity and wonder. Characters are diverse.
There’s lots of fun to be had in your own backyard—and in this lively book. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781665935128
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
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by Thomas Forster & Shari Siadat ; illustrated by Jami Gigot
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by Jami Gigot ; illustrated by Jami Gigot
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by Jami Gigot ; illustrated by Jami Gigot
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...
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
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings
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by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino
by Christina Geist ; illustrated by Tim Bowers ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 12, 2022
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
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More by Christina Geist
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by Christina Geist ; illustrated by Tim Bowers
BOOK REVIEW
by Christina Geist ; illustrated by Tim Bowers
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