A sweet, uplifting take on facial difference, friendship, and self-acceptance.
A child feels self-conscious about the birthmark on her forehead.
Mom says the birthmark is an angel’s kiss, and cousin Charlie says it’s a superpower. Still, the unnamed protagonist wonders how she’d look without the mark, which she’s named Toto. And when strangers ask about Toto, the narrator’s face reddens, and she “cannot say a word.” Pink-hued Toto and the narrator’s crimson cheeks stand out against the sepia-toned backdrops, emphasizing the narrator’s feeling that “sometimes people only see Toto, not me.” So when Mom proposes concealing Toto under the child’s bangs before school starts, she agrees. At school, she quickly befriends a girl named Niko. But when the narrator hangs upside down from the monkey bars, Toto is revealed. To the protagonist’s astonishment, Niko thinks she’s “just extraordinary”—“The birthmark on your face means that you have another life!” Later, the narrator muses that without Toto, “I might not look like ME at all. And I might not feel extraordinary.” Using short sentences and appealing kid logic, Yum, who based the story on a friend’s daughter’s experience and her own childhood memories of fielding questions about a birthmark on her leg, introduces young readers to the idea of facial difference. The narrator’s and Niko’s doll-like faces are endearing, conveying joy, embarrassment, and surprise through simple lines. The protagonist and her family have skin the white of the page and present East Asian; Niko has darker skin.
A sweet, uplifting take on facial difference, friendship, and self-acceptance. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9780823453894
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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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