A noisy classroom turns out to be a delightful place to learn.
Unconventional methods can help create a curious lifelong learner.
Shanté’s debut picture book focuses on a young child who is worried about entering the third grade. The second grade class is expected to be silent in the hallway, and their classroom is quiet and orderly. The narrator is apprehensive about entering Ms. Johnson’s “noisy” classroom, where the students listen to music! Taking a cue from Judith Viorst’s Alexander, the narrator tells Ma and Pa that having a job in Antarctica would be better than entering Ms. Johnson’s classroom and spends the summer preparing for the move. But when the time comes and third grade starts, the narrator finds that Ms. Johnson’s unconventional classroom, where lessons feel like play, isn’t so bad after all. Although the narrative text is filtered through this anxious child’s point of view, readers are likely to wonder why on earth this kid is so nervous about having a teacher who is manifestly so much more fun than their current one, but it does accurately represent a young child’s nervousness about change. Caregivers who are hoping to start a conversation on managing classroom fears would find this book a great place to start. Hawkins depicts a diverse school; the brown-skinned narrator is biracial and bicultural, with a Caribbean dad and Latinx mom. Both the second grade teacher and Ms. Johnson present black.
A noisy classroom turns out to be a delightful place to learn. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5132-6292-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: West Margin Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share.
In this latest in the series, Little Blue Truck, driven by pal Toad, is challenged to a countryside race by Racer Red, a sleek, low-slung vehicle.
Blue agrees, and the race is on. Although the two start off “hood to hood / and wheel to wheel,” they switch positions often as they speed their way over dusty country roads. Blue’s farm friends follow along to share in the excitement and shout out encouragement; adult readers will have fun voicing the various animal sounds. Short rhyming verses on each page and several strategic page turns add drama to the narrative, but soft, mottled effects in the otherwise colorful illustrations keep the competition from becoming too intense. Racer Red crosses the finish line first, but Blue is a gracious loser, happy to have worked hard. That’s a new concept for Racer Red, who’s laser-focused on victory but takes Blue’s words (“win or lose, it’s fun to try!”) to heart—a revelation that may lead to worthwhile storytime discussions. When Blue’s farm animal friends hop into the truck for the ride home, Racer Red tags along and learns a second lesson, one about speed. “Fast is fun, / and slow is too, / as long as you’re / with friends.”
A friendship tale with solid messaging and plenty of fun sounds to share. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780063387843
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2025
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
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