A tribute as bright, luxuriant, and giving as Marsha herself.
On a day in June 2020, people across New York City gather in defense of Black trans lives—and to honor queer activist and icon Marsha P. Johnson (1945-1992).
“You see…the way we are exactly ourselves, no more, no less? That’s because of Marsha.” Addressing both a young child and readers, a Black caregiver offers glimpses of Marsha’s life: her style, her attitude, her struggles, but most especially her seemingly simple but radical acts of kindness and acceptance. Connecting these past moments to the present, Tourmaline’s text is wonderfully light on its feet, dancing through rather than around the threats faced by Marsha and by Black trans people today while also showing that the sunshine of connection and joy is more than a match for the shadow of all-too-real struggle. A distinctly intergenerational pulse thrums under every word, emphasizing the storytelling and living knowledge at the heart of queer, trans, and Black community resilience and resistance. Kristensen’s illustrations bring Marsha’s full glory to bear as she sweeps not only skirts too fabulous for words, but also a larger-than-life light across the cityscape of her home and her people. Most impressively, Tourmaline brings Marsha the icon into the more intimate space of Marsha the person as she finds joy in accepting herself and others, knowing “that’s how we change the world”—something the youngest of readers will understand they can do.
A tribute as bright, luxuriant, and giving as Marsha herself. (author’s note, additional resources) (Informational picture book. 3-8)Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9780593525371
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.
A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.
Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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
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