A sturdy sequel about shortcuts that’s just different enough from its predecessor.
An ambitious child tries on different tails for different tasks in Kessides’ picture book.
Wally, the star of the author’s previous title, A Tail Tale (2025), returns with a new take on an old problem. The ambitious Wally is eager to use different animal tails to help him with a variety of tasks. When his mother asks him to do some chores, Wally speaks to the Tailor, who bestows upon him a monkey’s tail that enables him to do twice the work. Wally returns the appendage when he ends up extra exhausted and asks for a warm fox’s tail the following week when his father wants to go on a chilly camping trip. A family of foxes tries to lure him out of the tent, prompting Wally’s serpentine companion, Snoo, to remark, “I warned you!” (“Snoo was smart indeed, but Wally liked to try things for himself.”) Wally’s plan to wear a peacock tail to a wedding fares no better, but he is finally able to turn things around when he encounters an injured beaver in the woods. Each episode in this charming tale about the dangers of taking shortcuts is instructive and entertaining. As a whole, the story could flow more smoothly, and it’s disappointing that Snoo has little impact on any of the events. Gledhill portrays Wally as a white-skinned, brown haired boy in her simple, watercolor-like illustrations.
A sturdy sequel about shortcuts that’s just different enough from its predecessor.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on...
Continuing from their acclaimed Those Shoes (2007), Boelts and Jones entwine conversations on money, motives, and morality.
This second collaboration between author and illustrator is set within an urban multicultural streetscape, where brown-skinned protagonist Ruben wishes for a bike like his friend Sergio’s. He wishes, but Ruben knows too well the pressure his family feels to prioritize the essentials. While Sergio buys a pack of football cards from Sonny’s Grocery, Ruben must buy the bread his mom wants. A familiar lady drops what Ruben believes to be a $1 bill, but picking it up, to his shock, he discovers $100! Is this Ruben’s chance to get himself the bike of his dreams? In a fateful twist, Ruben loses track of the C-note and is sent into a panic. After finally finding it nestled deep in a backpack pocket, he comes to a sense of moral clarity: “I remember how it was for me when that money that was hers—then mine—was gone.” When he returns the bill to her, the lady offers Ruben her blessing, leaving him with double-dipped emotions, “happy and mixed up, full and empty.” Readers will be pleased that there’s no reward for Ruben’s choice of integrity beyond the priceless love and warmth of a family’s care and pride.
Embedded in this heartwarming story of doing the right thing is a deft examination of the pressures of income inequality on children. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6649-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
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