A sweet and valuable tale of cultural understanding and the meaning of kindness.
Elzein highlights the power of kindness to reach across cultural and religious divides in this illustrated children’s story about the spirit of Ramadan.
The house next door to young Ahmad and his mother, Leila, is for sale, and an elderly woman named Gladys, and her cat, Fluffy, come to see the place. Gladys notices a sign in front of Ahmad’s house that reads, “Salam Alaikum” and wonders what it means; the real estate agent says that he doesn’t know, but that the home belongs to a Muslim family. The woman troublingly expresses worry and says that she’s “not sure about this neighborhood,” but the agent convinces her to try the house for a month and “meet the neighbors.” It’s soon established that her worries are based on ignorance regarding a faith and a people she knows nothing about. Ahmad and Leila knock on Gladys’ door that evening, bringing her a plate of warm food and inviting her to be their special guest for dinner the next night in celebration of Ramadan. As Ahmad and Leila offer kindness to Gladys and others in the community, Gladys learns the true meaning of Salam Alaikum (“peace be upon you”) and forges a special bond with Ahmad. This sweet story offers children a beautiful example of cultural competency and what it means to love one’s neighbor. As Gladys and Ahmad share their Egyptian Muslim and English Christian cultural backgrounds (and foods) with each other, it offers valuable opportunities for learning, empathy, and mutual understanding. The story also demonstrates the uniting power of kindness, community service, and hospitality—the perfect book to read with children during Ramadan. It also shows kids how they can make a difference in their neighborhoods, no matter how young they are. Elgazzar’s bright, friendly illustrations have a soft, childlike appeal and ably communicate the warm, friendly tone of the story.
A sweet and valuable tale of cultural understanding and the meaning of kindness.Pub Date: March 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781954507128
Page Count: 31
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
As ephemeral as a valentine.
Daywalt and Jeffers’ wandering crayons explore love.
Each double-page spread offers readers a vision of one of the anthropomorphic crayons on the left along with the statement “Love is [color].” The word love is represented by a small heart in the appropriate color. Opposite, childlike crayon drawings explain how that color represents love. So, readers learn, “love is green. / Because love is helpful.” The accompanying crayon drawing depicts two alligators, one holding a recycling bin and the other tossing a plastic cup into it, offering readers two ways of understanding green. Some statements are thought-provoking: “Love is white. / Because sometimes love is hard to see,” reaches beyond the immediate image of a cat’s yellow eyes, pink nose, and black mouth and whiskers, its white face and body indistinguishable from the paper it’s drawn on, to prompt real questions. “Love is brown. / Because sometimes love stinks,” on the other hand, depicted by a brown bear standing next to a brown, squiggly turd, may provoke giggles but is fundamentally a cheap laugh. Some of the color assignments have a distinctly arbitrary feel: Why is purple associated with the imagination and pink with silliness? Fans of The Day the Crayons Quit (2013) hoping for more clever, metaliterary fun will be disappointed by this rather syrupy read.
As ephemeral as a valentine. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-9268-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2021
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Not enough tricks to make this a treat.
Another holiday title (How To Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace, illustrated by Elkerton, 2017) sticks to the popular series’ formula.
Rhyming four-line verses describe seven intrepid trick-or-treaters’ efforts to capture the witch haunting their Halloween. Rhyming roadblocks with toolbox is an acceptable stretch, but too often too many words or syllables in the lines throw off the cadence. Children familiar with earlier titles will recognize the traps set by the costume-clad kids—a pulley and box snare, a “Tunnel of Tricks.” Eventually they accept her invitation to “floss, bump, and boogie,” concluding “the dance party had hit the finale at last, / each dancing monster started to cheer! / There’s no doubt about it, we have to admit: / This witch threw the party of the year!” The kids are diverse, and their costumes are fanciful rather than scary—a unicorn, a dragon, a scarecrow, a red-haired child in a lab coat and bow tie, a wizard, and two space creatures. The monsters, goblins, ghosts, and jack-o'-lanterns, backgrounded by a turquoise and purple night sky, are sufficiently eerie. Still, there isn’t enough originality here to entice any but the most ardent fans of Halloween or the series. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Not enough tricks to make this a treat. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72821-035-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: May 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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