My Brave Year of Firsts: Tries, Sighs, and High Fives

by Jamie Lee Curtis, Laura Cornell (Illustrator)

Overview

The first time I rode a two-wheeler alone, I crashed and my mom filmed it on her iPhone. . . .

The tenth children's book by the #1 New York Times bestselling team of Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell celebrates the extraordinary, everyday bravery of trying new things for the very first time. Whether Frankie's learning to ride a bike, love her first dog, make new friends (her very first twins), or help out her dad, she discovers that trying new things is how she grows—and that being brave enough to do so is what growing up is all about.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061441554
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	09/04/2012
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	478,453
Product dimensions:	9.75(w) x 11.26(h) x 0.25(d)
Lexile:	AD540L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Jamie Lee Curtis has had many firsts: her first (and only) marriage to Christopher Guest, her first time holding her children, Annie and Tom, her first time pretending to be a customer in an episode of Quincy, and her first time she wrote words that became her first book. She lives in Los Angeles, the first city she ever lived in, and is always first in line, first to arrive, first to leave, and first to sleep.

Laura Cornell lives in New York City with her daughter, Lily (first and only), but they spend much time in California, Laura's first state in her first home. She was asked to illustrate Jamie's first book, and that became ten. Lucky is the first word that comes to mind.

Editorial Reviews

Curtis and Cornell use the occasion of their 10th collaboration to take readers on a journey through the firsts in the life of a fabulously pigtailed, snaggle-toothed girl named Frankie. Curtis sums it up nicely: "Some firsts just happen./ Some come when I try./ Some firsts make me smile./ Some firsts make me cry." The key to making the most of a first—whether good (first walk around the block without Mom), bad (first minor theft, first lie), or a matter of mastery (learning how to skip rope)—comes down to curiosity, a willingness to learn from both triumphs and mistakes, and a hearty dose of that old-fashioned character trait known as grit. Frankie has it all, and Cornell has a great time capturing it, filling her pages with endearingly goofy kids, wide open opportunities, and a healthy dose of social satire (in Frankie's kindergarten class, the "What I did over the summer" bulletin board admonishes "Do not tell us you went to the beach or to Disneyland"). Even when Curtis's rhyming goes a little flat or verges on saccharine, readers will recognize familiar milestones in Frankie's catalogue of experiences. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

PreS-Gr 1—In this10th book by this best-selling team, readers follow wild child Frankie through her first-grade year. Other firsts include crashing on a two-wheeler, cleaning up her new pet's poop, and falling off a pony and are balanced by learning to tie shoes, walking around the block with friends, and helping Dad at his restaurant. "Some FIRSTS just happen,/some come when I try,/some FIRSTS make me smile,/some make me cry." Curtis's encouragement to be "brave, true and strong" is empowering. Cornell's ink-and-watercolor cartoons burst with energy and humor. The first-day-of-school spread is hilarious: frantic parents crowding the door, one child flailing in tantrum, another facing the corner, one in fetal position under a table, and the heroine instantly enamored of a set of buck-toothed twins with flyaway hair. Both author and illustrator capture the joys of saying yes to a busy life.—Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA

School Library Journal

Curtis and Cornell pair up for their 10th outing to hilariously chronicle the many "firsts" their spunky, irreverent protagonist experiences. With an abundance of kinky, sunny yellow hair and a face nimble with a variety of rapidly changing and humorously exaggerated facial expressions, a young girl blithely describes her initial feats: riding a two-wheeler, choosing a pet and picking up its poop, getting caught in a lie, going to work with Dad, attending ballet class and playing T-ball. The comic narrative moves forward with a choppy clip--some of the rhyming couplets are a tad forced or use odd phrasing: "I tried for the first time to taste my mom's truffles / that apparently come from when pigs use their snuffles." Some humor seems aimed at adults, but in the main, it employs the right amount of silliness, such as when milk squirts through her nose or when she becomes hopelessly tangled in her jump-rope. Also in the frenetic flurry of bright watercolor-and-ink images, readers learn about some homonyms and peruse a funny chart of the umpteen ways to "tie" shoes. Finally the girl comes to realize that "first things / first happen / when I'm brave, true, and strong." Indeed. Fans will enjoy the many laugh-out-loud scenes regardless of the less-than-smooth text. Get ready for an onslaught of enthusiastic requests. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews