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BROS

Name: BROS
Author: Carole Boston Weatherford
ISBN: 9781536220414

by Carole Boston Weatherford ; illustrated by Reggie Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 12, 2024

Delightful.

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Five young Black boys come together for a day of ecstatic play at the park.

The rose-painted landscape of sunrise greets readers as this book opens on three friends meeting in the morning quiet of a playground. After the kids enjoy a rollicking wagon ride and build an imaginary time machine, two more friends join the group, and the five play pretend, explore a garden, visit the library, shoot hoops, and have adventures until the sun goes down. Weatherford’s spare, subject-verb text captures Brown’s vibrant spreads (or perhaps it’s the other way round) in a heartbeat of rhyme: “Bros dare. We care. We speak. We geek. We lead. We read.” Brown’s soft but textured illustrations feel fresh and open, with all the energy of cartoon callbacks and the spontaneity of playground fun. The crew of bros represent an array of melanin in rich shades of brown; they’re also diverse in terms of body type and ability, to say nothing of the fresh cuts and fly natural styles atop their heads. The text lends itself to rhythmic storytimes, first-time forays into solo reading, and even some sight-word practice. But more than this, this book’s significance is the simple, uninterrupted joy and shared belonging present in each of the spaces the group of five chooses to be—a liberation that Black boys can’t always find outside (or indeed within) a book’s pages.

Delightful. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: March 12, 2024

ISBN: 9781536220414

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Candlewick

Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
OUTSPOKEN
by Carole Boston Weatherford ; illustrated by Eric Velasquez

- BOOK REVIEW
A CROWN OF STORIES
by Carole Boston Weatherford ; illustrated by Khalif Tahir Thompson

- BOOK REVIEW
KIN
by Carole Boston Weatherford ; illustrated by Jeffery Boston Weatherford

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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)