Caregivers may find this useful as a starting point, but this brand-new title already feels dated.
This “First Talk About Online Safety” focuses on interpersonal relationships.
Roberts, a child psychologist, explains social media, personal boundaries, and cyberbullying. Simple, cloying language in the primary narrative contrasts with more sophisticated sidebars, which define terms such as “inappropriate” (inadequately) and “crowdfunding” (well enough). Full-color illustrations and photographs show a multiracial cast of children looking concernedly at smartphones, bathing in the glow of a laptop, or gathering around a tablet. In an apparent attempt to avoid alarming children, the text sacrifices cleareyed communication for vague moralizing. Immediately, readers discover “there are things on the Internet that are not very good,” and while “Most people post things that are interesting or nice to see…sometimes people use the Internet to say unkind things or behave in ways that are inappropriate or mean.” On the subject of boundaries, children learn that “When people on the Internet share too much private information about themselves or someone else, the ones who see it often feel really uncomfortable.” A prescriptive explanation about “Online Friends vs. Real-Life Friends” doesn’t acknowledge differing realities of online friendship and support, and the closing pivots from serious (“Thinking about this stuff makes me kind of uncomfortable and angry”) to optimistic (“How can I use the Internet in a way that will be good for me and others?”) and borders on melodrama.
Caregivers may find this useful as a starting point, but this brand-new title already feels dated. (Informational picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Feb. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4598-2094-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
A sweet and endearing feathered migration.
A relationship between a Latina grandmother and her mixed-race granddaughter serves as the frame to depict the ruby-throated hummingbird migration pattern.
In Granny’s lap, a girl is encouraged to “keep still” as the intergenerational pair awaits the ruby-throated hummingbirds with bowls of water in their hands. But like the granddaughter, the tz’unun—“the word for hummingbird in several [Latin American] languages”—must soon fly north. Over the next several double-page spreads, readers follow the ruby-throated hummingbird’s migration pattern from Central America and Mexico through the United States all the way to Canada. Davies metaphorically reunites the granddaughter and grandmother when “a visitor from Granny’s garden” crosses paths with the girl in New York City. Ray provides delicately hashed lines in the illustrations that bring the hummingbirds’ erratic flight pattern to life as they travel north. The watercolor palette is injected with vibrancy by the addition of gold ink, mirroring the hummingbirds’ flashing feathers in the slants of light. The story is supplemented by notes on different pages with facts about the birds such as their nest size, diet, and flight schedule. In addition, a note about ruby-throated hummingbirds supplies readers with detailed information on how ornithologists study and keep track of these birds.
A sweet and endearing feathered migration. (bibliography, index) (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0538-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era.
The New Orleans school child who famously broke the color line in 1960 while surrounded by federal marshals describes the early days of her experience from a 6-year-old’s perspective.
Bridges told her tale to younger children in 2009’s Ruby Bridges Goes to School, but here the sensibility is more personal, and the sometimes-shocking historical photos have been replaced by uplifting painted scenes. “I didn’t find out what being ‘the first’ really meant until the day I arrived at this new school,” she writes. Unfrightened by the crowd of “screaming white people” that greets her at the school’s door (she thinks it’s like Mardi Gras) but surprised to find herself the only child in her classroom, and even the entire building, she gradually realizes the significance of her act as (in Smith’s illustration) she compares a small personal photo to the all-White class photos posted on a bulletin board and sees the difference. As she reflects on her new understanding, symbolic scenes first depict other dark-skinned children marching into classes in her wake to friendly greetings from lighter-skinned classmates (“School is just school,” she sensibly concludes, “and kids are just kids”) and finally an image of the bright-eyed icon posed next to a soaring bridge of reconciliation. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A unique angle on a watershed moment in the civil rights era. (author and illustrator notes, glossary) (Autobiographical picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75388-2
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
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