A vibrant depiction of the exquisite imagination of an underrepresented child.
A girl with autism and hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome dreams of universes beyond what science can measure in this whimsical nighttime-hued picture book.
Eliza Dee knows her science about the sky: “The sun is a star, always shining, even at night,” and even when the moon doesn’t look like a sphere, it is. But when she dreams, it’s her creativity that shines. She imagines herself as a pixie traveling in the space between universes, where she uses pixie dust to turn the outline of a leaf to full color. As her wonder grows, so does her imagination, until finally, she realizes she can create any universe in her mind. Her fancies conclude with a question, as Eliza Dee wonders what the reader will dream. Vitsmun and Mikki create a vibrant imaginative space, first grounding the peach-skinned, rosy-cheeked Eliza Dee in the real world of the night sky, looking through a telescope or sitting in a room decorated with real-world constellations. Mikki introduces a riot of color in the dreamscape, featuring a hodge-podge of invented animals and fish with wings. Vitsmun’s vocabulary is accessible, with short sentences that span many images. In a note, Vitsmun points out that Eliza Dee’s conditions are considered “invisible disabilities”; without these notes, readers might not realize Eliza is neurodivergent or that her imagined worlds are due to hyperphantasia. The star’s hypermobility is subtly evident in the way Mikki depicts her seated positions, particularly in the real world, where she crosses legs or kneels in a way that her flexibility makes possible.
A vibrant depiction of the exquisite imagination of an underrepresented child.Pub Date: April 4, 2024
ISBN: 9781839195259
Page Count: 38
Publisher: Hypatia Press
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
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)Pub Date: June 21, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child...
Imani endures the insults heaped upon her by the other village children, but she never gives up her dreams.
The Masai girl is tiny compared to the other children, but she is full of imagination and perseverance. Luckily, she has a mother who believes in her and tells her stories that will fuel that imagination. Mama tells her about the moon goddess, Olapa, who wins over the sun god. She tells Imani about Anansi, the trickster spider who vanquishes a larger snake. (Troublingly, the fact that Anansi is a West African figure, not of the Masai, goes unaddressed in both text and author’s note.) Inspired, the tiny girl tries to find new ways to achieve her dream: to touch the moon. One day, after crashing to the ground yet again when her leafy wings fail, she is ready to forget her hopes. That night, she witnesses the adumu, the special warriors’ jumping dance. Imani wakes the next morning, determined to jump to the moon. After jumping all day, she reaches the moon, meets Olapa and receives a special present from the goddess, a small moon rock. Now she becomes the storyteller when she relates her adventure to Mama. The watercolor-and-graphite illustrations have been enhanced digitally, and the night scenes of storytelling and fantasy with their glowing stars and moons have a more powerful impact than the daytime scenes, with their blander colors.
While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child to be admired. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-934133-57-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Mackinac Island Press
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
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