An upbeat, welcome introduction to disability.
Kids with disabilities demonstrate the many ways they communicate, learn, and have fun.
“Everybody has a body,” readers are told, but “we’re different shapes, sizes, and shades, and our bodies work in different ways too.” However, those differences “shouldn’t matter. We’re ALL kids!” In simple sentences overlaying color photos, kids with conditions such as blindness, limb difference, and allergies chime in to describe how they learn, play, and love “in our own way.” As the text notes “We have different ways to communicate,” a child wearing hearing aids explains that they use sign language. On a page devoted to kids with learning disabilities, a child confidently declares, “I know I’m different, but I’m just being me.” Importantly, the narration acknowledges that disabilities aren’t always visible; for instance, a child mentions needing medication for their heart. The text concludes by encouraging readers to “be kind to everybody and every kind of body!” Vibrant, expressive photos of racially diverse disabled kids reading, swimming, cycling, cuddling pets, and more present disability as a natural facet of being a kid. Though the kids’ collective narration is well spaced and presented in a large font, comments by individual kids, rendered in a smaller font, blur slightly against the photos. Backmatter includes profiles of advocates with disabilities and further information about disability rights. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An upbeat, welcome introduction to disability. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780823451913
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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
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