Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
The First Last Day
Dorian Cirrone · 2016
76/100
👍 Worth It
Dorian Cirrone pulls off a genuinely difficult tonal balance — the magic-paints time loop is breezy and fun while the story underneath is quietly working through grief, loss, and accepting change — and Kirkus recognized exactly that. The time-loop mechanics are not airtight and the pacing is leisurely, but for middle-grade readers ready to feel something real inside a summer adventure, this delivers.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety88
substance76
craft76
originality72
accuracy78
hype74
age-fit84
human-eye78
Penny’s verdict76
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