A simplistic, whitewashed view of social change paired with a shallow framing of disability.
Can young Simon’s campaigns to protect vulnerable bears help this lonely child gain confidence and connection?
Seven-year-old Simon’s classmates bully him for stuttering. He copes by focusing on his love of bears, admiring their powerful presence. Simon’s fascination spurs him to action when he learns that logging threatens brown bear habitat. The white boy writes letters to political leaders and raises funds with a lemonade stand he opens especially to save the bears. When the bears’ habitat is eventually saved, Simon believes that “[h]is words had helped make a difference” and takes up a new cause as a teenager: organizing a student letter-writing campaign on behalf of rare spirit bears. As Simon prepares to make classroom presentations, he admonishes himself: “TRY.” As if through sheer force of will, he speaks without stuttering and inspires his classmates to join his campaign. Oliver’s narrative leaps forward, and readers may find Simon’s exponential impact startling: his founding of the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition (which “millions” join), his friendship with Jane Goodall, and his participation in a spirit bear research expedition. Only passing mention is made of “local Indigenous communities” that were central to the real-life spirit bear campaign. Sadly, this story employs both a white savior complex (despite brown-skinned background characters in Dockrill’s wan illustrations) and upsetting disability tropes in which disabled people overcome their conditions if only they try hard enough.
A simplistic, whitewashed view of social change paired with a shallow framing of disability. (author’s note) (Picture book/biography. 7-9)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-77138-979-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
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BOOK REVIEW
A title worth moving to the head of the line.
An artist grappled with boundaries.
Growing up in California, Ruth Aiko Asawa (1926-2013) was keenly aware of an “invisible line” separating her life at home, where she was called Aiko, from school, where she was known as Ruth—though “she could cross back and forth or even straddle it if she had to.” This beautifully wrought metaphor for a bicultural Japanese American experience is echoed throughout the book: in the lines a young Asawa drew in the dirt at her family farm and the way she lined up for the Pledge of Allegiance at school. The most important lines, however, were those she made as an artist, especially when creativity sustained her while she and other Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. She studied to become an art teacher, but “because she looked like the enemy, her college wouldn’t place her at a school.” She persevered and, after the war, found her way to Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Drawing inspiration from Mexican wire baskets and memories of barbed wire at the camps, Asawa was driven by the conviction that “art is for everyone.” Infused with emotion, the unflinchingly honest text and exquisite mixed-media art, which layers dazzling pops of blue onto muted backdrops, detail the oppression Asawa faced—and her resilience. An informative author’s note provides additional context for this story of an innovative artist whose legacy of democratizing the arts is utterly inspirational.
A title worth moving to the head of the line. (photograph, bibliography) (Picture-book biography. 7-11)Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781250310378
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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