"My dad and I live in an airport. That's because we don't have a home and the airport is better than the streets. We are careful not to get caught." Thus begins this poignant narrative in the voice of a preschooler. The boy's widower-father leaves him with another homeless family when he goes to his part-time job as a janitor, and searches second-hand newspapers for more work and an apartment they can afford: "After next summer, Dad says, I have to start school"—but how? Meanwhile, in the vast, impersonal space where lucky travelers are welcomed home, the two find some sense of community but treasure their hope of escape to a place of their own. Using quiet browns and blues to suggest the sterile-looking airport and depicting the homeless with undefined faces and averted eyes—which evoke both their own need to be unseen to survive and others' aversion to seeing them—Himler matches Bunting's understated text with gentle sensibility. Like The Wall (1990), an outstanding presentation of a serious topic for young children.
Pub Date: March 18, 1991
ISBN: 0-395-55962-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2000
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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Coco, who loves her gentle friend Bear, is shocked to learn that the other forest animals do not know about his kindness.
Inspired by one of her grandmother’s favorite maxims, Coco, a girl with light brown skin and curly brown hair, works with Bear to “share some kindness [and] bring some light” to the other animals in the forest. Interpreting it literally, the two make cookies (kindness) and lanterns (light) to share with the other animals. They trek through the snow-covered forest to deliver their gifts, but no one trusts Bear enough to accept them. As night begins to fall, Bear and Coco head home with the lanterns and cookies. On the way through the quiet forest, they hear a small voice pleading for help; it’s Baby Deer, stuck in the snow. They help free him, and Bear gives the young one a ride home on his back. When the other animals see both that Baby Deer is safe and that Bear is responsible for this, they begin to recognize all the wonderful things about Bear that they had not noticed before. The episode is weak on backstory—how did Coco and Bear become friends? Why don’t the animals know Bear better by now?—but Stott’s delicately inked and colored illustrations offer beguiling views of lightly anthropomorphized woodland critters that make it easy to move past these stumbling blocks. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 67% of actual size.)
Lit with sweetness. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-6238-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES
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BOOK REVIEW
Essential.
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A guidebook for taking action against racism.
The clear title and bold, colorful illustrations will immediately draw attention to this book, designed to guide each reader on a personal journey to work to dismantle racism. In the author’s note, Jewell begins with explanations about word choice, including the use of the terms “folx,” because it is gender neutral, and “global majority,” noting that marginalized communities of color are actually the majority in the world. She also chooses to capitalize Black, Brown, and Indigenous as a way of centering these communities’ voices; "white" is not capitalized. Organized in four sections—identity, history, taking action, and working in solidarity—each chapter builds on the lessons of the previous section. Underlined words are defined in the glossary, but Jewell unpacks concepts around race in an accessible way, bringing attention to common misunderstandings. Activities are included at the end of each chapter; they are effective, prompting both self-reflection and action steps from readers. The activities are designed to not be written inside the actual book; instead Jewell invites readers to find a special notebook and favorite pen and use that throughout. Combining the disruption of common fallacies, spotlights on change makers, the author’s personal reflections, and a call to action, this powerful book has something for all young people no matter what stage they are at in terms of awareness or activism.
Essential. (author’s note, further reading, glossary, select bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10-18)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7112-4521-1
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
Categories: CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL SCIENCES
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