Pat Miller (1) (1951–)

Squirrel sets out to discover what a resolution is and how to make one in this New Year's picture-book from author Pat Miller and illustrator Kathi Ember. Visiting her friends on New Year's Day, she learns what each of their resolutions are, and does her best to help them achieve their goals. Discouraged that she has not yet found her own resolution however, Squirrel is comforted when she finds out that her actions over the course of the day, in aiding her woodland friends, reveal a show more resolution that she is already on the way to keeping. Namely, to help someone every day...

Although not entirely convinced by the story premise of Squirrel's New Year's Resolution—I would think that a resolution would have be a conscious goal, rather than an unconscious impulse, but perhaps that's just me—I nevertheless enjoyed the book. The story is sweet, and the artwork cute. Miller and Ember appear to have worked together before, on the 2006 Substitute Groundhog, but this is my first book from either. Unlike the Lunar New Year, I have not encountered very many picture-books about the Solar New Year, so I was glad to have discovered this one, even if it was only moderately enjoyable, rather than outstanding. Recommended to picture-book readers who enjoy animal stories, or are looking for (solar) New Year's stories. show less

Such a friendly, charming, wholesome book that is also just a bit silly. Fills in a spot on the calendar, and a lesson theme, both of which are insufficiently explored in other picture-books.

This book is troubling for a variety of reasons. Full of creative ideas for quickie uses of literature to entertain children during their “library time,” it continues the stereotype that teacher librarians are babysitters, even though the author sees the activities as ones that can be integrated into full collaborative learning activities. For our taste, this is the type of book that library paraprofessionals or volunteer parents could conduct in the library. The concentration is on an show more activity itself for itself. And, while it could be tied to something being taught in the classroom on that same topic, we don’t find enough substance in critical thinking, reading strategies, or curricular integration to warrant use of the ideas by the professional teacher librarian trying to move into the center of the curriculum. However, the support staff could be using these activities to engage children who are not participating in collaborative units being done in other parts of the library at the same time. Not recommended for the teacher librarian. show less

I really enjoyed this book. The characters in this book were relate able even though they were animals and we know that animals cannot talk. I thought that it was interesting how the author made it seem like the animals in the book were humans and had everyday events like we do. For example as humans we try to make a new years resolution every year and in this case squirrel is trying to make a resolution for himself. I really like how the author described what a resolution was because it was show more very child appropriate and very easily understandable. The only thing that kind of confused me was the plot of the story because to me there was no middle to the story and the setting in the books changed so often it was hard to follow squirrel. I knew that Squirrel was just trying to find out what everyone's new years resolution was but I feel that when children try to read this book they could get confused with all the different resolutions of the different animals. The big idea of this book was to teach students about resolutions and how we can use our new years resolutions to help ourselves and also other people. show less