A powerful exploration of what it means to be welcomed, seen, and accepted.
After being excluded by her peers, a girl finally makes a friend.
The only student with brown skin and her hair in twists, Ameena always plays alone at school. “No one saw her. No one heard her. Or maybe they did. They just didn’t show it. She wasn’t sure.” When they aren’t ignoring her, the other kids look at her like she’s strange. But one day, there’s a new student named Sundus in her class. “Ameena saw her brownness. Saw her hijab, like the ones Ameena also wore to masjid. Saw it was the color of spring, the color of lilacs.” Ameena is not alone! The potential for friendship is there, but Ameena must first learn how to approach and communicate with Sundus, who mistakes Ameena’s initial clumsy overture for a taunt. But a tender moment between their mothers during a visit to the masjid, witnessed by Ameena, offers a blueprint for the language of friendship. Maydani’s sweetly hazy illustrations, which alternate between light pastels and darker shades, capture the characters’ evolving emotions. Thompkins-Bigelow’s words resonate deeply and convey feelings of isolation, exclusion, and joyful acceptance. Details such as the cornrowed braids in Ameena’s hair and the depiction of the imam as a Black man with a beard add texture and normalize Black Muslim representation in children’s literature.
A powerful exploration of what it means to be welcomed, seen, and accepted. (Picture book. 5-9)Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781419767210
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for...
A gentle voice and familiar pitfalls characterize this tale of a boy navigating the risky road to responsibility.
Gavin is new to his neighborhood and Carver Elementary. He likes his new friend, Richard, and has a typically contentious relationship with his older sister, Danielle. When Gavin’s desire to impress Richard sets off a disastrous chain of events, the boy struggles to evade responsibility for his actions. “After all, it isn’t his fault that Danielle’s snow globe got broken. Sure, he shouldn’t have been in her room—but then, she shouldn’t be keeping candy in her room to tempt him. Anybody would be tempted. Anybody!” opines Gavin once he learns the punishment for his crime. While Gavin has a charming Everyboy quality, and his aversion to Aunt Myrtle’s yapping little dog rings true, little about Gavin distinguishes him from other trouble-prone protagonists. He is, regrettably, forgettable. Coretta Scott King Honor winner English (Francie, 1999) is a teacher whose storytelling usually benefits from her day job. Unfortunately, the pizzazz of classroom chaos is largely absent from this series opener.
This outing lacks the sophistication of such category standards as Clementine; here’s hoping English amps things up for subsequent volumes. (Fiction. 6-9)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-97044-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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