Engaging, age-appropriate, and eye-opening.
Fictional profiles based on real girls from countries around the world illustrate some of the gender-based inequities that inspired girl activists to champion the International Day of the Girl through the United Nations.
Flora, in Brazil, begins to learn capoeira, a martial art that can help her defend herself against men who follow girls on the “long, unsafe road to and from school.” Hana, in Afghanistan, learns to read from her grandmother when girls are prohibited from going to school. Abuya, in Kenya, learns carpentry from her father, and when her sister stops going to high school because there is no private bathroom, she practices her skills with other girls until they can build an outhouse to help girls continue going to school. Other girls use STEM skills, advocacy, and positive personality traits and talents to address mental health, access to education, nutrition, and child marriage. Each spread is dedicated to one girl’s story: One side pictures the girl being active in her community in attractive pastel illustrations; the other side relays her story in a few concise, accessible paragraphs, with a sidebar naming her country and some other countries with similar issues. A header introduces her as “strong,” “smart,” “brave,” etc. This nonfiction volume introduces heavy issues in the context of child-led social change, a powerful method that inspires hope rather than despair. Endnotes offer a timeline of advocacy at the U.N. for girls and women and further information, including statistics, with web-based sources. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-24-inch double-page spreads viewed at 61% of actual size.)
Engaging, age-appropriate, and eye-opening. (Nonfiction. 6-10)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5253-0058-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40.
From two Nobel Peace Prize winners, an invitation to look past sadness and loneliness to the joy that surrounds us.
Bobbing in the wake of 2016’s heavyweight Book of Joy (2016), this brief but buoyant address to young readers offers an earnest insight: “If you just focus on the thing that is making / you sad, then the sadness is all you see. / But if you look around, you will / see that joy is everywhere.” López expands the simply delivered proposal in fresh and lyrical ways—beginning with paired scenes of the authors as solitary children growing up in very different circumstances on (as they put it) “opposite sides of the world,” then meeting as young friends bonded by streams of rainbow bunting and going on to share their exuberantly hued joy with a group of dancers diverse in terms of age, race, culture, and locale while urging readers to do the same. Though on the whole this comes off as a bit bland (the banter and hilarity that characterized the authors’ recorded interchanges are absent here) and their advice just to look away from the sad things may seem facile in view of what too many children are inescapably faced with, still, it’s hard to imagine anyone in the world more qualified to deliver such a message than these two. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Hundreds of pages of unbridled uplift boiled down to 40. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-48423-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2022
Anemic messages of hope from an iconic activist.
Civil rights legend Bridges encourages young people to persevere.
After becoming the face of school integration at just 6 years old, Bridges continued to further her legacy by visiting schools across the U.S. Over the past 25 years, she has received letters from thousands of students with “ideas and concerns that ran deeper than we grown-ups gave them credit for.” In her latest book for kids, Bridges responds to notes from children grappling with political and social crises, including anti-Asian racism, climate change, and gun violence. The issues that matter to young Americans come alive in Cabuay’s energetic illustrations, which make deft use of color and texture. On one spread, a short, brown-skinned child named Tala, bullied for being short, strides confidently down a school hallway past classmates who whisper and laugh. In the accompanying letter, Tala talks about drawing strength from Bridges’ bravery; Bridges’ reply emphasizes that “it’s okay to be different because what really matters is your heart and what’s inside!” The correspondences are brief, barely skimming the surface, and Bridges’ messages are too general to have a genuine impact. Backmatter, which includes a glossary with pronunciation guides, is helpful but does little to connect Bridges’ historic contributions to the issues young people are facing today. This picture book’s superficial discussion of important topics doesn’t live up to Bridges’ advocacy or Cabuay’s dynamic art.
Anemic messages of hope from an iconic activist. (more information on Bridges) (Picture book. 6-9)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2024
ISBN: 9781338753912
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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