JANE ESCAPES TO THE JUNGLE OF INDIVIDUALITY (THE ADVENTURES OF JANE'S IMAGINATION)

In Nestor’s picture book, a young girl learns to accept her differences and to celebrate her uniqueness.

One morning, Jane, who has tan skin and curly brown hair, wakes, eats breakfast, puts on her glasses, and grabs her bag.  However, just as she leaves for school, she becomes nervous and stalls. At school, shy Jane feels unaccepted by her peers and holds back her questions.  Her mother then comforts her, encouraging her to celebrate what makes her unique (“what makes you different makes you beautiful”), but on the bus, a miserable boy named Eric forces her to move away from the group. In that moment, Jane launches into a daydream about the Jungle of Individuality. After a visit to the jungle and a swim in the Waterfall of Strength, Jane accepts her uniqueness.  In this heartwarming book, Nestor effectively conveys what it’s like to feel different. The stunning illustrations by Mikki use a warm color palette to beautifully show emotion and establish a sense of place. The images are particularly apt at depicting the genuine warmth and acceptance Jane experiences at home—the cat and Jane’s mother mirror each other’s pained expressions when Jane begs to stay. The text’s ideas are rich, and the observation that much mean behavior is rooted in other people’s issues is insightful; however, readers may wish that the Jungle of Individuality was a more nuanced conceit less focused on alliteration and assonance.

A beautifully illustrated celebration of human differences.