bookshelf

ONE BOY WATCHING

Name: ONE BOY WATCHING
Author: Grant Snider
ISBN: 978-1-79721-088-9

by Grant Snider ; illustrated by Grant Snider ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 28, 2022

A contemplative picture book that bears watching.

bookshelf

A view of rural life through the eyes of a boy riding the bus to school.

The book opens to the sight of “one boy watching” for the school bus in the morning. Once on the bus, he looks out the window at sparsely populated country roads, train tracks, and farmland while the seats slowly fill with other children. The solitary but curious and contented nature of the unnamed boy is palpable as he notices various details, from “one gnarled tree” and “four rusty cars” to “seven wild sunflowers” and “two water towers.” The repetitive text, with just one line per page, underscores the routine nature of the daily bus ride as well as its lengthiness. The bus itself almost becomes a character, described at first in static terms—“two bright headlights,” “three big steps up,” and “twenty-eight empty seats”—and then figuratively as a “crayon box” into which kids pack themselves and from which they ultimately spill out. This image is especially appropriate given Snider’s smudged crayon illustrations, brightly colored and drawn in a childlike style. The emphasis on numbers (although not presented in order) to describe details in the illustrations makes this book useful for practicing counting. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A contemplative picture book that bears watching. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 28, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-79721-088-9

Page Count: 60

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S HEALTH & DAILY LIVING

- BOOK REVIEW
POETRY COMICS
by Grant Snider ; illustrated by Grant Snider

- BOOK REVIEW
NOTHING EVER HAPPENS ON A GRAY DAY
by Grant Snider ; illustrated by Grant Snider

- BOOK REVIEW
BLUE FLOATS AWAY
by Travis Jonker ; illustrated by Grant Snider

bookshelf

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...

bookshelf

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
A PERFECT PLACE TO PLAY
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Jim Valeri

- 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

bookshelf

THE CRAYONS GO BACK TO SCHOOL

by Drew Daywalt ; illustrated by Oliver Jeffers ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 16, 2023

Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings.

bookshelf

The Crayons head back to class in this latest series entry.

Daywalt’s expository text lays out the basics as various Crayons wave goodbye to the beach, choose a first-day outfit, greet old friends, and make new ones. As in previous outings, the perennially droll illustrations and hand-lettered Crayon-speak drive the humor. The ever wrapperless Peach, opining, “What am I going to wear?” surveys three options: top hat and tails, a chef’s toque and apron, and a Santa suit. New friends Chunky Toddler Crayon (who’s missing a bite-sized bit of their blue point) and Husky Toddler Crayon speculate excitedly on their common last name: “I wonder if we’re related!” White Crayon, all but disappearing against the page’s copious white space, sits cross-legged reading a copy of H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man. And Yellow and Orange, notable for their previous existential argument about the color of the sun, find agreement in science class: Jupiter, clearly, is yellow AND orange. Everybody’s excited about art class—“Even if they make a mess. Actually…ESPECIALLY if they make a mess!” Here, a spread of crayoned doodles of butterflies, hearts, and stars is followed by one with fulsome scribbles. Fans of previous outings will spot cameos from Glow in the Dark and yellow-caped Esteban (the Crayon formerly known as Pea Green). (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Nothing new here but a nonetheless congenial matriculant in publishing’s autumnal rite of back-to-school offerings. (Picture book. 4-6)