An engaging primer on embracing differences that deftly combines a narrative with hands-on learning.
A debut illustrated children’s book focuses on starting discussions about skin color and diversity with kids, centering on a South Asian audience.
This work tackles simple questions that school-aged children are likely to ask about others’ physical appearances and attitudes (“Why are our skin colors so different?” “Why are grown-ups sometimes mean to each other?”). In a series of chapters organized around themes (“Seeing Difference,” “Understanding Difference,” “Learning Difference,” “Loving Difference”), Gupta offers an arts-based slate of activities to help parents and educators explore questions that may otherwise be difficult to discuss. Pasricha’s detailed and appealing illustrations in muted colors depict brown-skinned children wearing a variety of clothing styles. The food and cultural references (laddoo sweets; Warli paintings) are Indian. A map shows “the Indian subcontinent” (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan are included inside one border) with various activities and Hindu/Mughal cultural sites labeled. The activities included will be useful for many families and classrooms. One activity invites children to find a family member’s skin tone on a page of different-colored fingerprints while another helps kids think about nature’s diversity by collecting and painting leaves. The text prioritizes understanding the natural origins of human diversity and encouraging curiosity about others’ cultures and backgrounds. A role-playing activity featuring a drawing filled with kids with different skin colors, body sizes, and presentations invites youngsters to rehearse how they would ask questions about differences in a good-faith way. Terms like melanin, adaptation, and stereotype are defined for readers. A short history of racism, in South Asia and the world at large, is a bit pat (“One day” oppressed people “fought and defeated the bossy ones”). But lessons throughout encourage readers to dismiss racist stereotypes, and a call to action asks children to intervene in racist incidents.
An engaging primer on embracing differences that deftly combines a narrative with hands-on learning.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73256-442-8
Page Count: 44
Publisher: The Colo(u)rism Project
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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