Nurturing, encouraging, and necessary.
A heartfelt love letter urging Muslim children everywhere to courageously embrace the tenets of their faith.
The author of Dear Black Child (2022), illustrated by Lydia Mba, unapologetically puts Muslim children at the center of this picture book. The story begins with the narrator telling little ones about the divine plan for their birth: “Did you know that your birth was meant to be?” An explanation about some of Islam’s foundational principles follows: “Dear Muslim Child, / Can I tell you about Islam? // Islam is rooted in peace. / So live in peace. / Inspire peace. / And invite peace into your life.” Next, Rodaah poses questions: “Do you know the meaning of Nur?” “Do you know how special your name is?” “Do you know the power of words?” These queries lead to reminders to remain rooted in Islamic practices and to live proudly and publicly: “Pray in public as you would at home. / Perform your salat without feeling shy. / Be graceful and let each movement bring you comfort.” Poetic language and a palette of cool colors that complements the comforting words together evoke warmth, safety, and pride. Illustrations featuring children and adults who have a variety of skin tones, body shapes, and clothing styles reflect the rich diversity of the global Muslim community.
Nurturing, encouraging, and necessary. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780063091993
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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