An uneven but nevertheless worthy effort.
This installment of the Let’s Talk About You and Me series tackles a wide range of topics related to human diversity.
Opening text affirms everyone’s uniqueness: “All around the world there are people—billions of people. But there is only one of you,” while Westcott’s art depicts ethnically diverse families entering a theme park called Funland. There are interracial families, a child using a wheelchair, a woman wearing a headscarf, and a two-dad family. One interracial family, including a black mother, white father, two children, and a baby appears in every spread, and the children’s speech-balloon conversation punctuates the narrative text’s statements about hair texture, skin color, eye shape, languages, dress, stature, etc. While the intention is clearly inclusive, some phrasing may give readers pause: “People’s bodies are mostly the same—except for the parts that make them a girl or a boy, or a man or a woman,” for instance, ignores increasing awareness of intersex bodies and transgender identity. Illustrations also do little to present diversity in body shape and size, since the majority of people depicted are slim. Readers are invited to consider the pain caused by “saying mean things,” which pushes beyond surface celebration of diversity. This leads to a closing reiteration of each person’s uniqueness while also emphasizing that “we are more the same than we are different,” especially with regard to feelings. [Note: Subsequent printings of the book replace the sentence "People's bodies are mostly the same—except for the parts that make them a girl or boy, or a man or a woman" with the following text: "People’s bodies are mostly the same except for the private parts we are born with. Those parts are called a vagina or a penis.”]
An uneven but nevertheless worthy effort. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6903-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
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
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.
With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?
Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7033-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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