This positive compendium of possibilities should encourage children to embrace their paths, wherever they lead.
Appealing illustrations and a multiracial cast give kids an opportunity to picture themselves in an array of career roles that run the gamut from A to Z.
Like the earlier ABC What Can She Be? (2018), this follow-up is designed to stimulate a child’s imagination and broaden their sense of the possibilities before them. The overall message is stated plainly on the cover: “Boys can be anything they want to be, from A to Z.” There’s a deliberate gender neutrality in the selection of career roles depicted even as the masculine pronoun is repeated over and over. “A is for Astronaut. He blasts into space to explore new worlds” is followed by “B is for Ballet Dancer. He gracefully dances with leaps and turns. He is so flexible and strong.” Other occupations presented include environmental engineer, fashion designer, jet pilot, karate instructor, nurse, quantum physicist, race car driver, yoga instructor, and xenobiologist (less obvious than X-ray technician, if a bit esoteric), to name a few. The artwork and lettering are brightly colored; the illustrations make each occupation look appealing and often exciting. The word “HE,” when it introduces each job description, appears in varying colorful letters suggestive of the rainbow pride flag, perhaps to underscore the book’s message of inclusivity. Caregivers of nonbinary kids will be hoping, however, for a forthcoming ABC What Can They Be?
This positive compendium of possibilities should encourage children to embrace their paths, wherever they lead. (Board book. 3-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63322-724-8
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Walter Foster Jr.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Adults will do better skipping the book and talking with their children.
Social-equity themes are presented to children in ABC format.
Terms related to intersectional inequality, such as “class,” “gender,” “privilege,” “oppression,” “race,” and “sex,” as well as other topics important to social justice such as “feminism,” “human being,” “immigration,” “justice,” “kindness,” “multicultural,” “transgender,” “understanding,” and “value” are named and explained. There are 26 in all, one for each letter of the alphabet. Colorful two-page spreads with kid-friendly illustrations present each term. First the term is described: “Belief is when you are confident something exists even if you can’t see it. Lots of different beliefs fill the world, and no single belief is right for everyone.” On the facing page it concludes: “B is for BELIEF / Everyone has different beliefs.” It is hard to see who the intended audience for this little board book is. Babies and toddlers are busy learning the names for their body parts, familiar objects around them, and perhaps some basic feelings like happy, hungry, and sad; slightly older preschoolers will probably be bewildered by explanations such as: “A value is an expression of how to live a belief. A value can serve as a guide for how you behave around other human beings. / V is for VALUE / Live your beliefs out loud.”
Adults will do better skipping the book and talking with their children. (Board book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-78603-742-8
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
Caregivers eager to expose their children to fine art have better choices than this.
From “Apple” to “Zebra,” an alphabet of images drawn from museum paintings.
In an exhibition that recalls similar, if less parochial, ABCs from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (My First ABC, 2009) and several other institutions, Hahn presents a Eurocentric selection of paintings or details to illustrate for each letter a common item or animal—all printed with reasonable clarity and captioned with identifying names, titles, and dates. She then proceeds to saddle each with an inane question (“What sounds do you think this cat is making?” “Where can you find ice?”) and a clumsily written couplet that unnecessarily repeats the artist’s name: “Flowers are plants that blossom and bloom. / Frédéric Bazille painted them filling up this room!” She also sometimes contradicts the visuals, claiming that the horses in a Franz Marc painting entitled “Two Horses, 1912” are ponies, apparently to populate the P page. Moreover, her “X” is an actual X-ray of a Jean-Honoré Fragonard, showing that the artist repainted his subject’s face…interesting but not quite in keeping with the familiar subjects chosen for the other letters.
Caregivers eager to expose their children to fine art have better choices than this. (Informational picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5107-4938-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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