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THE TOGETHER TREE

Name: THE TOGETHER TREE
Author: Aisha Saeed
ISBN: 9781534462960

by Aisha Saeed ; illustrated by LeUyen Pham ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 30, 2023

A loving and lyrical tale about belonging.

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When Rumi moves to a brand-new coast, friendship feels hard to find.

Although he is assigned the best seat in the room—right next to the class pets—brown-skinned Rumi still feels unwelcome and out of place in his new school. At recess, instead of playing with his diverse classmates, he sits beneath a willow tree in the schoolyard, dreaming of the cypress trees he loved back home in San Francisco. Things get worse when classmates Asher and Ella (both light-skinned) tease Rumi, making fun of the shoes he’d decorated with his friends in California. The bullying escalates when Asher throws a crumpled ball of paper at Rumi and later injures Rumi with a stone. Rumi’s classmate Han, who is Asian-presenting, comes to his defense, and the rest of the class soon follows, all eager to contribute to the drawing Rumi has been working on in the dirt beneath the tree. When Asher wanders back inside, alone, Rumi has a decision to make—does he want to perpetuate the bullying or end the cycle of exclusion? Based on an experience that happened to the author’s son, this poignant story captures our capacity for cruelty but also for forgiveness and acceptance. Precise language and well-chosen scenes create a cast of believable characters in only a few words, while the vibrant illustrations artfully use color and light to heighten the mood of each scene. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A loving and lyrical tale about belonging. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: May 30, 2023

ISBN: 9781534462960

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ZUNI AND THE MEMORY JAR
by Aisha Saeed ; illustrated by Neha Rawat

- BOOK REVIEW
FORTY WORDS FOR LOVE
by Aisha Saeed

- BOOK REVIEW
GROUNDED
by Aisha Saeed , Huda Al-Marashi , Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow & S.K. Ali

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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BUDDY'S NEW BUDDY

From the Growing With Buddy series , Vol. 3

by Christina Geist ; illustrated by Tim Bowers ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 12, 2022

Making friends isn’t always this easy and convenient.

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How do you make a new friend when an old one moves away?

Buddy (from Sorry, Grown-Ups, You Can’t Go to School, 2019, etc.) is feeling lonely. His best friend just moved across town. To make matters worse, there is a field trip coming up, and Buddy needs a bus partner. His sister, Lady, has some helpful advice for making a new pal: “You just need to find something you have in common.” Buddy loves the game Robo Chargers and karate. Surely there is someone else who does, too! Unfortunately, there isn’t. However, when a new student arrives (one day later) and asks everyone to call her Sunny instead of Alison, Buddy gets excited. No one uses his given name, either; they just call him Buddy. He secretly whispers his “real, official name” to Sunny at lunch—an indication that a true friendship is being formed. The rest of the story plods merrily along, all pieces falling exactly into place (she even likes Robo Chargers!), accompanied by Bowers’ digital art, a mix of spot art and full-bleed illustrations. Friendship-building can be an emotionally charged event in a child’s life—young readers will certainly see themselves in Buddy’s plight—but, alas, there is not much storytelling magic to be found. Buddy and his family are White, Sunny and Mr. Teacher are Black, and Buddy’s other classmates are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Making friends isn’t always this easy and convenient. (Picture book. 4-7)