Earnest and encouraging.
In NBA superstar Curry’s latest, a young Black girl worries that her hearing aids will prevent her from joining her new school’s soccer team.
Though Zoe’s practiced all summer, she’s nervous. What if she’s not good enough? And if she puts her hair up to play, kids will see her hearing aids. Fearing the others won’t accept her, Zoe removes her aids before a game. But playing without them proves difficult, and Zoe flees, lamenting that she’ll “never just be ordinary.” But fellow player Mila, who wears protective glasses, asks, “Who wants to be ordinary…when you can be EXTRAORDINARY!” Mila and her friends Marley and Brooklyn call Zoe’s attention to other athletes, such as a baseball player who uses a wheelchair and a runner with a prosthetic leg: “Can ordinary people do that?” Marley explains that Zoe’s dedication, and her hearing aids, make her extraordinary. Buoyed, Zoe—wearing her hearing aids—makes the team, and together they win the championship game. Author Curry appears on the last page and explains that kids must “find the courage and strength to overcome” challenges. Though it’s refreshing that Zoe’s disability isn’t her defining quality, the use of the word inspirational—a term bearing patronizing connotations for many disabled people—to describe her story risks muddying this point. Still, occasionally heavy-handed speech-balloon dialogue notwithstanding, Zoe’s teammates’ accepting attitudes are reassuring, and Bowers’ bright cartoon illustrations are engaging. Mila is pale-skinned, Brooklyn is brown-skinned, and Marley presents Asian.
Earnest and encouraging. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9780593386064
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends
Gerald the elephant learns a truth familiar to every preschooler—heck, every human: “Waiting is not easy!”
When Piggie cartwheels up to Gerald announcing that she has a surprise for him, Gerald is less than pleased to learn that the “surprise is a surprise.” Gerald pumps Piggie for information (it’s big, it’s pretty, and they can share it), but Piggie holds fast on this basic principle: Gerald will have to wait. Gerald lets out an almighty “GROAN!” Variations on this basic exchange occur throughout the day; Gerald pleads, Piggie insists they must wait; Gerald groans. As the day turns to twilight (signaled by the backgrounds that darken from mauve to gray to charcoal), Gerald gets grumpy. “WE HAVE WASTED THE WHOLE DAY!…And for WHAT!?” Piggie then gestures up to the Milky Way, which an awed Gerald acknowledges “was worth the wait.” Willems relies even more than usual on the slightest of changes in posture, layout and typography, as two waiting figures can’t help but be pretty static. At one point, Piggie assumes the lotus position, infuriating Gerald. Most amusingly, Gerald’s elephantine groans assume weighty physicality in spread-filling speech bubbles that knock Piggie to the ground. And the spectacular, photo-collaged images of the Milky Way that dwarf the two friends makes it clear that it was indeed worth the wait.
A lesson that never grows old, enacted with verve by two favorite friends . (Early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-9957-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An absolute pleasure.
A small dog takes a huge leap.
True to her name, sled dog puppy Leap spends her days bounding happily through blankets of freshly fallen snow, bouncily biding her time until she, too, can suit up for a run with the team. Each dog brings a different, equally essential skill to the work of mushing, and as too-young Leap greets the pack when they return from their daily hike, she worries—what if she lacks a special talent of her own when it’s her time to race? But when the much-anticipated day arrives and Leap clips in for her rookie run, her feet tippity-tap excitedly, any trace of self-doubt eclipsed by her irrepressible enthusiasm. With their new addition in tow, the other dogs take off, buoyed as ever by a confidence borne from specialized expertise; they confront obstacles head-on, sailing easily along icy Northwoods terrain. That is until the team encounters a seemingly insurmountable hurdle, one that only their greenest member can clear. Dogsled racer Braverman’s sweet narrative builds a satisfying case for individuality as a community asset, celebrating both the value of teamwork and the discrete strengths that comprise it. Savvy readers will take pride in predicting Leap’s unique contribution, while canine lovers will delight in the revelation that the pups depicted are all real-life sled dogs working in northern Wisconsin. When’s illustrations are equal parts spellbinding and precious, deftly balancing compositional simplicity with masterful color work. The result is peerless.
An absolute pleasure. (author’s note) (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9780063238053
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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