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SOMETIMES IT'S NICE TO BE ALONE

Name: SOMETIMES IT'S NICE TO BE ALONE
Author: Amy Hest
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4947-7

by Amy Hest ; illustrated by Philip C. Stead ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 14, 2023

A sparkling reminder that nothing is as powerful as a child’s imagination.

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Being alone can be fun—but so can spending time with a pal.

The book opens with the titular phrase as a tan-skinned child with enormous, dark-rimmed glasses sits at a table, a stuffed elephant at their feet. “Just you, eating your cookie, alone. But what if a friend pops in?” Suddenly, the elephant—now huge and rendered with astonishingly realistic detail—joins the child’s snack time. Readers will laugh out loud as the text continues to calmly acknowledge how nice it is when a friend comes along to share cookies. The other adventures in the book also start with the titular phrase and a different, initially inconspicuous toy animal that comes to vivid life. Reading a book with a horse, somersaulting with a whale, trampling autumn leaves with a dinosaur—the list goes on, as does the synergy of words, art, and layout. The text is simple and eloquent, with enough repetition to captivate the youngest readers but also with precise, often lyrical, descriptions for each activity. The child’s imagination is sometimes evident even before the animals come to life; in one scene, where text describes the child biking up a hill, “pushing and panting,” the illustration depicts them riding up a slightly angled board propped against a barrel. The fantastical adventures wind down at bedtime—but is that a penguin under the bed? (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A sparkling reminder that nothing is as powerful as a child’s imagination. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2023

ISBN: 978-0-8234-4947-7

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Neal Porter/Holiday House

Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
BIG BEAR AND LITTLE BEAR GO FISHING
by Amy Hest ; illustrated by Erin E. Stead

- BOOK REVIEW
BUNNY SHOULD BE SLEEPING
by Amy Hest ; illustrated by Renata Liwska

- BOOK REVIEW
JUST THE WAY THEY ARE
by Amy Hest ; illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton

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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...

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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
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

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THE BIG CHEESE

From the Food Group series

by Jory John ; illustrated by Pete Oswald ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 2023

From curds to riches, from meltdown to uplift—this multicourse romp delivers.

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A winning wheel of cheddar with braggadocio to match narrates a tale of comeuppance and redemption.

From humble beginnings among kitchen curds living “quiet lives of pasteurization,” the Big Cheese longs to be the best and builds success and renown based on proven skills and dependable results: “I stuck to the things I was good at.” When newcomer Wedge moves to the village of Curds-on-Whey, the Cheese’s star status wobbles and falls. Turns out that quiet, modest Wedge is also multitalented. At the annual Cheese-cathlon, Wedge bests six-time winner Cheese in every event, from the footrace and chess to hat making and bread buttering. A disappointed Cheese throws a full-blown tantrum before arriving at a moment of truth: Self-calming, conscious breathing permits deep relief that losing—even badly—does not result in disaster. A debrief with Wedge “that wasn’t all about me” leads to further realizations: Losing builds empathy for others; obsession with winning obscures “the joy of participating.” The chastened cheddar learns to reserve bragging for lifting up friends, because anyone can be the Big Cheese. More didactic and less pun-rich than previous entries in the Food Group series, this outing nevertheless couples a cheerful refrain with pithy life lessons that hit home. Oswald’s detailed, comical illustrations continue to provide laughs, including a spot with Cheese onstage doing a “CHED” talk.

From curds to riches, from meltdown to uplift—this multicourse romp delivers. (Picture book. 4-8)