An important and well-illustrated consideration of a common problem among kids.
Jeffrey offers a picture book about a girl struggling with debilitating test anxiety.
During recess with her second grade class, Katie is happy and worry-free. After returning to the classroom, though, her expression changes to one of terror. The blank sheet of paper on her desk signals a spelling test, and her anxiety about it makes her scribble on her desk after teacher Miss Julie calls out the first word. Now she also feels intense embarrassment because the whole class sees what she’s done. Katie’s teacher gently talks to her about what happened; at home, her parents also try to console her, but she remains distraught. The next day, Miss Julie demonstrates an exercise that can help her and other children manage their anxiety. Jeffrey valuably lists the physical symptoms that the anxious Katie is overcome by, which will help young readers understand her unusual response. The placement of the text within Kilmartin’s full-color, realistically illustrated scenes, however, isn’t seamless; larger blocks sometimes clutter up the visual landscape. Although Katie is the star of the story, the watercolor paintings make her classmates distinctive as well. The images also show the stark contrast between Katie’s gleeful abandon and her fraught consternation. Katie is portrayed with pale skin, and other characters are depicted with a range of skin tones.
An important and well-illustrated consideration of a common problem among kids.Pub Date: April 30, 2024
ISBN: 9798218968427
Page Count: 32
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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
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