A sympathetic, engaging, and understanding look at autism.
A boy finds a way to explain autism to his classmates in this show-and-tell picture book based on a true story.
Ian is excited about a new school year, but his classmates have trouble understanding why he does things differently. Ian ends up mostly playing by himself. When the teacher announces a show-and-tell project, he isn’t sure what to do. He wishes his classmates could understand him as well as his favorite stuffed animal does. That gives him an idea: “I’ll tell them about autism and show them how I think differently. Then they’ll understand.” With his mom’s help, Ian puts together objects to help him explain autism to his class, like a hula hoop to show how he sometimes forgets personal space. Later, a classmate reminds him of the hula hoop, and he understands he’s too close—they now speak the same language. Montgomery uses a clear font and simple sentences to pack a lot of information into the captivating tale. The voice feels authentic to Ian’s experiences, and the empathetic story is based on a presentation the author’s own son did for his third grade class. Bolognese-Warrington skillfully uses color, showing Ian’s world primarily in grayscale until the White boy begins his presentation. Each of Ian’s objects brings a splash of color to the page. At the end of his talk, the whole classroom is depicted in bright hues. The correlation of being understood with seeing in full color is an effective technique.
A sympathetic, engaging, and understanding look at autism.Pub Date: April 11, 2023
ISBN: 978-1667891293
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Ruby Dolphin Books, LLC
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
Enthusiastic and direct, this paean has a lovely ring to it.
Former National Youth Poet Laureate Gorman invites girls to raise their voices and make a difference.
“Today, we finally have a say,” proclaims the first-person plural narration as three girls (one presents Black, another is brown-skinned, and the third is light-skinned) pass one another marshmallows on a stick around a campfire. In Wise’s textured, almost three-dimensional illustrations, the trio traverse fantastical, often abstract landscapes, playing, demonstrating, eating, and even flying, while confident rhymes sing their praises and celebrate collective female victories. The phrase “LIBERATION. FREEDOM. RESPECT” appears on a protest sign that bookends their journey. Simple and accessible, the rhythmic visual storytelling presents an optimistic vision of young people working toward a better world. Sometimes family members or other diverse comrades surround the girls, emphasizing that power comes from community. Gorman is careful to specify that “some of us go by she / And some of us go by they.” She affirms, too, that each person is “a different shape and size,” though the art doesn’t show much variation in body type. Characters also vary in ability. Real-life figures emerge as the girls dream of past luminaries such as author Octavia Butler and activist Marsha P. Johnson, along with present-day role models including poet and journalist Plestia Alaqad and athlete Sha’carri Richardson; silhouettes stand in for heroines as yet unknown. Imagining that “we are where change is going” is hopeful indeed.
Enthusiastic and direct, this paean has a lovely ring to it. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593624180
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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