Nicole Miles

Jul 16, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Yevgenia Nayberg |Nicole Miles |Chris Barton |Don Tate

A passionate ode to a pioneering female artist whose influence endures and inspires. An artist finds kinship in the life and work of American painter Florine Stettheimer (1871-1944). A light-skinned young child who comes across Florine’s self-portrait in a museum is startled to discover that the artist resembles her. The child explores the parallels between their lives as artistic Jewish girls and ultimately commits to embracing Florine’s vibrant spirit.

May 14, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Corey Tabor |James Dean |Nicole Miles

A welcome reminder to embrace your view of the world. Ursula is disconcerted to realize she’s living her life upside down—or is she? Ursula, a sherbet-pink catfish, has a good life. “Weeds waved from above,” “Rays of sun shimmered from below,” and Ursula has “scrumptious buggy buffets” to feast upon. Some might wonder if there’s been a printing mistake: Other characters’ speech bubbles are upside down, and the sun peeks from the bottom of the page.

Apr 30, 2024 | kirkusreviews.com | Rajani LaRocca |Kat Fajardo |Nicole Miles |Suzy Kline

LaRocca picks up the baton for this latest in the series, each of which is written by a different middle-grade author and follows a different student in Mrs. Z’s third grade class. Mrs. Z announces that Curiosity Academy has a new garden. To help raise money for it, Rohan decides to start a pet-care business—an odd choice, as his younger sister, Kavya, points out, given that he dislikes animals. Ever since he was bitten by his music teacher’s cat, he worries that all pets bite.

May 9, 2023 | kirkusreviews.com | Dolly Parton |Erica S. Perl |Nicole Miles

THE PICNIC AND OTHER STORIES by Jarvis ; illustrated by Jarvis ‧ Four slice-of-life stories starring best friends Bear and Bird. In the first—and slightly mean-spirited—tale, Bird sits on a flower, falls in, and get stuck. Bear hears the “flower” crying and decides to cheer it up by regaling it with stories of Bird’s “silly” mistakes. Unsurprisingly, this fails to amuse Bird. Bear smells the flower, and his subsequent sneeze inadvertently frees Bird.