Though hardly a bullying silver bullet, this is an artful take on resilience.
A lonely, bullied child comes to proudly claim the label her tormentors give her, refusing to let their hateful judgment determine her self-worth.
Lila, a brown-skinned, black-haired girl of ambiguous ethnicity, is initially filled with joy at the prospect of making friends at her new school. Unfortunately, one boy in the classroom of fair-skinned children taunts her, jeering that her hair, skin, and eyes are “dark like a crow!!” This may confuse some young readers, as her skin is clearly a light brown. As the bullying escalates, Lila becomes isolated, the other children moving from passive bystanders to active participants in her persecution. A kindly and persistent crow who waits for Lila as she heads home from school each day helps her shift from trying to hide her appearance to appreciating and celebrating it. This newfound confidence inspires Lila to make a dramatic gesture that changes the dynamics in the classroom for the better. Translated from the French, this is the first book written by Québecoise illustrator Grimard and has obvious uses for starting conversations about embracing differences, being an upstander rather than a bystander, and the reclamation of words used as insults. The element of magical realism and luminous watercolor illustrations give this story a fairy-tale–like appeal, quite different from that of purely message-driven anti-bullying books.
Though hardly a bullying silver bullet, this is an artful take on resilience. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-55451-858-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Annick Press
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
Superficially appealing; much less so upon closer examination.
When Rabbit’s unbridled mania for collecting carrots leaves him unable to sleep in his cozy burrow, other animals offer to put him up.
But to Rabbit, their homes are just more storage space for carrots: Tortoise’s overstuffed shell cracks open; the branch breaks beneath Bird’s nest; Squirrel’s tree trunk topples over; and Beaver’s bulging lodge collapses at the first rainstorm. Impelled by guilt and the epiphany that “carrots weren’t for collecting—they were for SHARING!” Rabbit invites his newly homeless friends into his intact, and inexplicably now-roomy, burrow for a crunchy banquet. This could be read (with some effort) as a lightly humorous fable with a happy ending, and Hudson’s depictions of carrot-strewn natural scenes, of Rabbit as a plush bunny, and of the other animals as, at worst, mildly out of sorts support that take. Still, the insistent way Rabbit keeps forcing himself on his friends and the magnitude of the successive disasters may leave even less-reflective readers disturbed. Moreover, as Rabbit is never seen actually eating a carrot, his stockpiling looks a lot like the sort of compulsive hoarding that, in humans, is regarded as a mental illness.
Superficially appealing; much less so upon closer examination. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62370-638-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Capstone Young Readers
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
Damp.
A good friend can change your life.
Duck loves settling down with a hot beverage when he reads, but that’s the only liquid for him—he doesn’t like getting wet. As a result, he dresses in a yellow rain slicker constantly and spends rainy days inside with the shutters drawn. This solitary existence continues until one night when a particularly bad storm creates a hole in Duck’s roof. When he sets out to investigate repairing it, he comes face to face with a lost frog on his doorstep. Even though Frog loves the water, the two develop a friendship through a shared love of reading. Frog eventually finds his way home, but the two have bonded, and Duck invites Frog to join him as a new roommate. Although the story’s soft cartoon illustrations are amusing—Duck peddling his bicycle in his slicker, boots, and sou’wester will elicit smiles—they can’t save the superficial message of the story. Duck’s phobia is never directly addressed, but once Frog moves in permanently, the rain slicker vanishes, so there’s a bit of a visual resolution. Books addressing new friendships are always needed, but the characters need to be developed to attract and inspire readers. This pale imitation of Oliver Jeffers’ Lost and Found (2006) doesn’t have the depth needed to carry the message. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-15.8-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)
Damp. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: March 30, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8917-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
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