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I AM MORE THAN

Name: I AM MORE THAN
Author: LeBron James
ISBN: 9780063306608

by LeBron James ; illustrated by Niña Mata ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 2, 2024

Interactive, fun, and motivating.

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NBA superstar James follows up his New York Times–bestselling I Promise (2020) with another inspirational picture book.

“When they ask me who I am and what it is I do, I say I can do anything because I know it’s true.” The diverse youngsters in this book are a confident bunch who know they’re capable of anything. A Black child who uses a wheelchair throws a basketball in the air before opening up a laptop: “I can dribble and I can code; either way I’ve got game.” A light-skinned child paints a mural: “I create new worlds with the swish of a brush, and I rally for change.” A Black child holds a microphone surrounded by musical notes while a pair of pups look on happily: “I rhyme about a brighter tomorrow.” Other kids dance across tightropes, plant a garden, and read. The empowering affirmations feature action verbs: “I’ll reach my goals,” “I will succeed,” “I can climb the highest mountains.” Images of smiling children set against swirling, vibrant backgrounds give the book an exuberant, uplifting feel. Backmatter includes an author’s note from James and an image of an empty picture frame—encouragement for readers to draw their own self-portraits.

Interactive, fun, and motivating. (Picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: April 2, 2024

ISBN: 9780063306608

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
WE ARE FAMILY
by LeBron James & Andrea Williams

- BOOK REVIEW
I PROMISE
by LeBron James ; illustrated by Niña Mata

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LOVE FROM THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 2015

Safe to creep on by.

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Carle’s famous caterpillar expresses its love.

In three sentences that stretch out over most of the book’s 32 pages, the (here, at least) not-so-ravenous larva first describes the object of its love, then describes how that loved one makes it feel before concluding, “That’s why… / I[heart]U.” There is little original in either visual or textual content, much of it mined from The Very Hungry Caterpillar. “You are… / …so sweet,” proclaims the caterpillar as it crawls through the hole it’s munched in a strawberry; “…the cherry on my cake,” it says as it perches on the familiar square of chocolate cake; “…the apple of my eye,” it announces as it emerges from an apple. Images familiar from other works join the smiling sun that shone down on the caterpillar as it delivers assurances that “you make… / …the sun shine brighter / …the stars sparkle,” and so on. The book is small, only 7 inches high and 5 ¾ inches across when closed—probably not coincidentally about the size of a greeting card. While generations of children have grown up with the ravenous caterpillar, this collection of Carle imagery and platitudinous sentiment has little of his classic’s charm. The melding of Carle’s caterpillar with Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE on the book’s cover, alas, draws further attention to its derivative nature.

Safe to creep on by. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: Dec. 15, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-448-48932-2

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap

Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S HOLIDAYS & CELEBRATIONS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE FOOD?
edited by Eric Carle

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE BUG?
edited by Eric Carle

- BOOK REVIEW
MY FIRST I SEE YOU
by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)