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MY BABY

Name: MY BABY
Author: Jeanette Winter
ISBN: 0-374-35103-1

by Jeanette Winter & illustrated by Jeanette Winter ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 9, 2001

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There's a beautiful pattern and rhythm in the sound and sense of this story, whose images echo the music of its language. In Mali, women make the bògòlan, a mud-dyed cloth, and a young girl named Nakunte Diarra learns the art from her mother. As she grows up, the whole village comes to her for cloth, and when she marries, she wears the bògòlan her mother made for her. Nakunte then begins to make a bògòlan for her own child, and she is inspired by the patterns in what is around her. "Listen, my baby, do you hear the drums that call?" she says, painting an abstract pattern of drum forms in cloth stripes. The leopard's spots, the scorpion's tail, the calabash flower, the turtledove's footprints, each creates a pattern that Nakunte paints into her cloth, speaking to her baby about the creatures she sees. The bògòlan is done when the rains come—the time for the baby—and the child is wrapped in the gorgeous black-and-white cloth. Winter uses colors as luscious as tropical fruit setting off the contrast of the shimmering bògòlan. The flattened picture space dances with shape and form: dots, leaves, triangles, stripes. Winter, as she did in My Name Is Georgia, uses a real artist's work as the basis for a visual feast. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: March 9, 2001

ISBN: 0-374-35103-1

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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THE SNOW MAN
by Jonah Winter ; illustrated by Jeanette Winter

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THE LITTLE OWL & THE BIG TREE
by Jonah Winter ; illustrated by Jeanette Winter

- BOOK REVIEW
SISTER CORITA'S WORDS AND SHAPES
by Jeanette Winter ; illustrated by Jeanette Winter

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YOU WILL DO GREAT THINGS

by Amerie ; illustrated by Raissa Figueroa ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 28, 2023

Despite the glittering images, this story is a bit lackluster.

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In singer Amerie’s picture-book debut, a biracial child goes on a magical adventure, with ancestors rooting them on.

Full-bleed spreads depict a dark-skinned infant being nurtured by a Black- and Korean-coded family and growing into an energetic youngster with light brown locs and a high fade. As the family sits down to a meal, the protagonist wanders off, their eye caught by an old photograph of a smiling, Black ancestor in overalls. When the child reaches out toward the picture, they fly through the frame and emerge in a jewel-toned forest. The woods are full of glowing, dancing Black and Asian ancestors. Accompanied by rhyming, inspirational text, the narrative winds along with the jubilant kid as they dance through the trees, chase an otherworldly white creature, ride a fiery bird (perhaps inspired by the Samjok-o from Korean mythology), and meet a person in a Korean hanbok before returning home. Younger readers may enjoy the singsong words alongside illustrator Figueroa’s colorful, dreamlike art, but overall, the narrative feels somewhat unstructured and unsatisfying. Platitudes like “You will do big things / That just might change the world. // And you will do small things / That may help one boy or girl” are too timeworn to stand out, and the youngster’s hop from one supernatural montage to the next is more dizzying than enchanting. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Despite the glittering images, this story is a bit lackluster. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pub Date: March 28, 2023

ISBN: 978-1-250-81702-0

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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I LOVE MY GLAM-MA!

by Samantha Berger ; illustrated by Sujean Rim ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019

Grandmothers with both guts and glamour are sadly underrepresented; these Glam-mas will win lots of fans. (Picture book. 3-6)

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Grandmas come in all shapes, sizes, and races in this up-to-date portrait of grandmothers as young-at-heart, active participants in the lives of their grandchildren.

The story begins with an introduction to different names for grandmothers, including Abuela, Bubbe, and Oma before introducing Glam-ma—a term that may need further explanation beyond the text for some children, as “glamorous” isn’t a term in regular use by the intended audience. Different grandmas are introduced interacting with grandchildren in all sorts of activities ranging from dress-up play and cooking to karate class and attending a rock concert. The implication in the brief, bouncy text is that attitude is everything and that all these grandmothers are hip, happy, and healthy. Some of the grandmas are quite young, unusual in children’s books but a demographically realistic depiction, while others have gray or white hair (but nary a wrinkle). Characters with a wide range of skin tones are represented, including a cover illustration of a white grandma playing dress-up with her brown-skinned grandchildren. One grandmother uses a wheelchair and two use canes, though the canes don’t seem to be actually needed for support but rather for artistic effect. Bright, appealing watercolor illustrations are filled with expressive faces, lots of motion, and clever details for kids to find.

Grandmothers with both guts and glamour are sadly underrepresented; these Glam-mas will win lots of fans. (Picture book. 3-6)