A joyful and tender story of building understanding and generational bonds.
A young girl of South Asian descent helps her grandmother grapple with age-old assumptions about skin color.
Brown-skinned Ritu lounges in a sunny spot indoors, much to the chagrin of her traditionally attired Nani (maternal grandmother). Ritu loves the sun and doesn’t mind her tanned skin, unlike Nani, who cautions her about turning “as dark as me.” But a shift occurs one afternoon as the sun-worshipping Ritu sits with Nani and learns about her grandmother’s own childhood experiences: Nani’s mother worried about her daughter's skin darkening, and Nani felt lonely, watching the other children play. Slowly grandmother and granddaughter embrace each other’s point of view and their collective past as this simple yet powerful and empathetic tale unfolds. Hossain’s exquisitely crafted similes uplift the prose: Rotis “are pale and round and speckled with brown craters”; “aloo bhaji is like the sun, bright and hot and yellow”; and the characters’ hands are the “rich brown of henna and tea steeped just right.” Elegantly composed yet infused with a childlike sensibility, López’s vivid illustrations blend past and present beautifully as Nani’s reminiscences mingle with present day. Just as Joanna Ho’s Eyes That Kiss in the Corners (2021) celebrated East Asian heritage, this picture book will be a welcome addition to South Asian diasporic stories and will encourage age-appropriate dialogue about colorism, self-image, and beauty standards.
A joyful and tender story of building understanding and generational bonds. (author’s note, recipe) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 21, 2026
ISBN: 9780593806692
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Halloween is used merely as a backdrop; better holiday titles for young readers are available.
A ghost learns to appreciate his differences.
The little ghost protagonist of this title is unusual. He’s a quilt, not a lightweight sheet like his parents and friends. He dislikes being different despite his mom’s reassurance that his ancestors also had unconventional appearances. Halloween makes the little ghost happy, though. He decides to watch trick-or-treaters by draping over a porch chair—but lands on a porch rail instead. A mom accompanying her daughter picks him up, wraps him around her chilly daughter, and brings him home with them! The family likes his looks and comforting warmth, and the little ghost immediately feels better about himself. As soon as he’s able to, he flies out through the chimney and muses happily that this adventure happened only due to his being a quilt. This odd but gently told story conveys the importance of self-respect and acceptance of one’s uniqueness. The delivery of this positive message has something of a heavy-handed feel and is rushed besides. It also isn’t entirely logical: The protagonist could have been a different type of covering; a blanket, for instance, might have enjoyed an identical experience. The soft, pleasing illustrations’ palette of tans, grays, white, black, some touches of color, and, occasionally, white text against black backgrounds suggest isolation, such as the ghost feels about himself. Most humans, including the trick-or-treating mom and daughter, have beige skin. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-16.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 66.2% of actual size.)
Halloween is used merely as a backdrop; better holiday titles for young readers are available. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6447-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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