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MY NAME IS A STORY

Name: MY NAME IS A STORY
Author: Ashanti
ISBN: 978-0-0632-2236-6

by Ashanti ; illustrated by Monica Mikai ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 19, 2022

Sweet.

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Singer/songwriter Ashanti’s picture-book debut follows a little girl learning to accept and celebrate her unique name.

The story opens with a brown girl named Ashanti in a racially diverse classroom; she wishes that her name was “easy…like recess, sunshine, and skipping rocks.” Instead, she finds that her name is “a spelling bee for my teacher and jumbled puzzle pieces on my classmates’ tongues.” Her classmates call her name “weird” and giggle when she writes it on the board. When she cries in her brown-skinned mother’s lap after school, her mother explains the glory of her name and offers affirming words for each letter, like awesome, strength, and harmony. Ashanti wipes her tears away, and by the time they reach the final letter of her name, she is shouting, “An INSPIRATION! INNOVATION! A bright IMAGINATION!” with a smile and a triumphant stance. Her mother tells Ashanti that her name is a story, and the next day at school, Ashanti stands before the class with her head held high. Heartfelt moments between mother and daughter are the highlight of this book. Mikai’s speckled, pastel-hued art brings light and energy to the page. This does feel like a tale that’s been done before—the story arc is similar to Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow’s Your Name Is a Song (2020), illustrated by Luisa Uribe, and the main character’s physical appearance echoes Mikai’s prior picture-book art. Still, there is room for all of these titles on shelves. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Sweet. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: July 19, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-0632-2236-6

Page Count: 40

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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LITTLE RED SLEIGH

by Erin Guendelsberger ; illustrated by Elizaveta Tretyakova ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2020

Sadly, the storytelling runs aground.

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A little red sleigh has big Christmas dreams.

Although the detailed, full-color art doesn’t anthropomorphize the protagonist (which readers will likely identify as a sled and not a sleigh), a close third-person text affords the object thoughts and feelings while assigning feminine pronouns. “She longed to become Santa’s big red sleigh,” reads an early line establishing the sleigh’s motivation to leave her Christmas-shop home for the North Pole. Other toys discourage her, but she perseveres despite creeping self-doubt. A train and truck help the sleigh along, and when she wishes she were big, fast, and powerful like them, they offer encouragement and counsel patience. When a storm descends after the sleigh strikes out on her own, an unnamed girl playing in the snow brings her to a group of children who all take turns riding the sleigh down a hill. When the girl brings her home, the sleigh is crestfallen she didn’t reach the North Pole. A convoluted happily-ever-after ending shows a note from Santa that thanks the sleigh for giving children joy and invites her to the North Pole next year. “At last she understood what she was meant to do. She would build her life up spreading joy, one child at a time.” Will she leave the girl’s house to be gifted to other children? Will she stay and somehow also reach ever more children? Readers will be left wondering. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 31.8% of actual size.)

Sadly, the storytelling runs aground. (Picture book. 3-6)