Proof that Black girls, just by being themselves, stay ready to soar.
A rhyming picture book highlighting Black girls thriving.
Questions that highlight the upward and forward movement of Black girls are interspersed with sentences that at first seem like admonitions until it becomes clear that they are emphasizing the strength and beauty of the book’s subject. Lines like “You’d better keep quiet; keep still. / So you can know your place” echo social expectations that Black girls shouldn’t be loud and take up space. But Barnes goes on to assert that Black girls’ very existence is a testament to the power of the multihued and broad diaspora of Black people everywhere (“You’re supposed to dim your light / and never be seen. // But you don’t, girl—you won’t, girl— / you know you’re a queen”). Barnes stresses that Black girls have inherited the legacies of Toni Morrison, Mari Evans, Alice Walker, and Zora Neale Hurston, among others, and each illustration is a celebration of this fact. The book begins and ends with Black girls literally rising into the air, on tiptoes and with wings. Black girls using wheelchairs, Black girls wearing hijabs, Black girls embracing each other, wrapped by rainbows—they are all represented in vibrant, lightly textured oil and acrylic paintings. Every page turn brings more brilliant images that encourage readers to move at a steady, rhythmic pace through the book. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Proof that Black girls, just by being themselves, stay ready to soar. (Picture book. 5-10)Pub Date: June 28, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-4521-6487-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2022
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books.
Curious about the Big Wide World outside his Sasquatch community, Hugo makes a friend who is of it.
Sasquatch Hugo’s bedroom is inside a cave and possesses the charming feature of a small stream running through it that he can sail his little toy boat on. It’s cool, but he yearns to see the Big Wide World. When he asks his smart friend Gigi if a Sasquatch might become a sailor, she says it’s possible but would be difficult—the primary rule of their people is to not be seen by Humans. Then, in everyone’s favorite Hide and Go Sneak class, which is held outside, a Human appears; Hugo laughs at the sight, drawing Human attention in a taboo-breaking mistake. Shortly after, Hugo’s toy boat floats into the cave with a Human toy—soon, it’s facilitating a pen-pal–type relationship that’s derailed when Hugo confesses to being a Sasquatch and Human Boone, a budding cryptozoologist, doesn’t believe him. How Hugo and Boone resolve this misapprehension and become friends in a joint search for the Ogopogo concludes this series opener. Potter keeps the third-person narrative tightly focused on Hugo’s perspective, and the details she uses to flesh out the Sasquatch world are delightfully playful. Sala’s drawings depict a homey Sasquatch cavern community, Boone as a freckled, white boy, and Hugo as a hairily benevolent behemoth.
A charming friendship story and great setup for future books. (final art unseen) (Fantasy. 5-9)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4197-2859-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2018
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists.
How to raise money for a coveted poster: put your friends to work!
John, founder of the FUBU fashion line and a Shark Tank venture capitalist, offers a self-referential blueprint for financial success. Having only half of the $10 he needs for a Minka J poster, Daymond forks over $1 to buy a plain T-shirt, paints a picture of the pop star on it, sells it for $5, and uses all of his cash to buy nine more shirts. Then he recruits three friends to decorate them with his design and help sell them for an unspecified amount (from a conveniently free and empty street-fair booth) until they’re gone. The enterprising entrepreneur reimburses himself for the shirts and splits the remaining proceeds, which leaves him with enough for that poster as well as a “brand-new business book,” while his friends express other fiscal strategies: saving their share, spending it all on new art supplies, or donating part and buying a (math) book with the rest. (In a closing summation, the author also suggests investing in stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency.) Though Miles cranks up the visual energy in her sparsely detailed illustrations by incorporating bright colors and lots of greenbacks, the actual advice feels a bit vague. Daymond is Black; most of the cast are people of color. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
It’s hard to argue with success, but guides that actually do the math will be more useful to budding capitalists. (Picture book. 7-9)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56727-2
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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