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THE DOG WHO BELONGED TO NO ONE

Name: THE DOG WHO BELONGED TO NO ONE
Author: Amy Hest
ISBN: 978-0-8109-9483-6

by Amy Hest & illustrated by Amy Bates ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2008

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Hardworking girl meets scruffily cute mutt. Book design, with vintage type and text boxed like silent-movie title cards, combines with Bates’s elegant watercolors to give readers an immediate period feel. The small brown-and-white “dog with crooked ears” curiously wanders the streets while a somber little girl named Lia works hard at her family’s bakery on the edge of town. She delivers fresh baked goods every Sunday on her bicycle, as difficult and exhausting as it sounds, and one Sunday, it starts to rain. Lia pedals home quickly, and the dog races through the storm to find a comfy niche. They nearly collide but, following an instinct, the dog dashes ahead to the bakery, where both are given food and warm towels. From then on, Lia has a faithful companion. Careful parallel storytelling and beautifully paced page turns allow both text and illustrations to develop the characters, establishing both worth and loneliness, so the inevitable happy ending satisfies thoroughly. It’s a warm, well-appointed tale; both author and illustrator show a keen eye for detail. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008

ISBN: 978-0-8109-9483-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Abrams

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2008

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | 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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BECAUSE YOUR DADDY LOVES YOU

by Andrew Clements & illustrated by R.W. Alley ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 23, 2005

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Give this child’s-eye view of a day at the beach with an attentive father high marks for coziness: “When your ball blows across the sand and into the ocean and starts to drift away, your daddy could say, Didn’t I tell you not to play too close to the waves? But he doesn’t. He wades out into the cold water. And he brings your ball back to the beach and plays roll and catch with you.” Alley depicts a moppet and her relaxed-looking dad (to all appearances a single parent) in informally drawn beach and domestic settings: playing together, snuggling up on the sofa and finally hugging each other goodnight. The third-person voice is a bit distancing, but it makes the togetherness less treacly, and Dad’s mix of love and competence is less insulting, to parents and children both, than Douglas Wood’s What Dads Can’t Do (2000), illus by Doug Cushman. (Picture book. 5-7)