CREATIVITY

A posthumously published story by Steptoe (Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, 1987, etc.) demonstrates his usual themes of positive self-image and acceptance of cultural heritage, this time presenting young African-American Charles's reaction when "this new dude walks in" to Mr. Cohen's classroom. "Hector's whole name was one of them long numbers," and he speaks to the teacher in Spanish. Hector is from Puerto Rico, but he is the same color as Charles and his hair is also black (though straight). Charles doesn't get it, but he's happy to help Hector and his sisters learn the ropes in their new school. Mr. Cohen fills Charles in—how Hector's ancestry was enriched by that of other groups in Puerto Rico. Charles has already decided that Hector is a "nice dude," and he tells his parents that he could teach Hector English. Daddy says that Charles's riffing on the English language is creativity. It pleases Charles to learn that doing things his own way has a good name, and he puts the concept to good use when Hector needs some help with his clothes. Lewis's full-spread watercolors under a readable text happily complement this warm story of friendship. (Picture book. 6-10)