The positive message of self-confidence and potential makes this work a valuable addition to collections in need of...
Perpetually underrepresented in picture books, black children star in this tale about a neighborhood populated by kids with unlimited possibilities.
In this work by mother-son team Bynum (I’m a Lovely Little Latina!, 2015, etc.) and debut author Drummond, a young black boy named Joshua and his mother discuss the stars and what it means to be brilliant. “You are like a star / that lights everything / in every way,” his mother tells him. Her advice, “Be brilliant,” guides the boy through his academic, artistic, athletic, and social achievements. Illustrator McGee (Brotherman, 2016, etc.) peppers the background of Joshua’s room with details of his accomplishments: a poster reads “Student of the Month,” a superhero cape hangs on a coat stand, and objects like a basketball, a pickle jar containing some sort of collection, and a U.S. map on the wall suggest his varied interests. At school, Joshua shows his creativity and smarts by demonstrating pirate speech, leading a class experiment with a volcano, imagining colorful subjects to paint in art class, and freestyling poetry with his friends at lunch. He shows his bravery after school by rescuing a cat and turning a bully into a friend. Wanting to grow his allowance instead of just saving it, he starts a candy and lemonade stand before getting a haircut at the barbershop, playing basketball, building a fort on a community green with his friends, and finally convincing the group of the kindness in releasing caught fireflies. As the upbeat book closes, Joshua dreams of being an astrophysicist and embraces his bright future: “As I grow, and grow, / and grow…I’ll study hard / to make it so!” The rhythm in the poetry may not be intuitive to audiences used to formal ABAB stanzas, but by reading the text aloud, particularly the section on Joshua’s poetry, the complex beat becomes more obvious (“Hear my life, through spoken word, / my voice lifts like wings of a bird! / When I speak rhymes, then I am heard. / My rhymes fly free like flying birds, / instead, the sky’s painted with words!”). McGee’s vibrant images are full of detail, and he embraces a diversity of shapes and skin tones among the neighborhood’s black children.
The positive message of self-confidence and potential makes this work a valuable addition to collections in need of diversifying their shelves with illustrated volumes featuring modern black characters.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-692-55532-3
Page Count: 34
Publisher: PaperUp Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-689-83271-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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