BRAVE LIKE A LION!

Piphus, Sesame Street’s first Black and female full-time puppeteer, draws from personal experience to tell the story of a child who confronts her fears of public speaking.

May, a young girl who loves playing with puppets, feels anxious about starting her new school: “Without her puppets, May was afraid of using her voice in new places, with new faces.” Sure enough, she clams up at school. Worrisomely, her teacher gives the students an assignment that will force May to speak up: As May explains to one of her puppets, “We have to tell the whole class what our favorite animal is, and why it’s our favorite.” The assignment ultimately enables May to conquer her fear by employing her puppetry talents. The narrative offers a good message about finding strength within oneself, but the text is stilted and clichéd (“‘Wow!’ May’s classmates gasped in wonder”; “Nervous butterflies fluttered in May’s stomach”). There’s less story here than internal struggle, which is captured in Mata’s emotionally attuned art, rendered in theatrical colors. The book’s lesson is hammered home in May’s closing statement, which sounds as though it’s coming from the mouth of not a child or a puppet, but an adult: “When you are brave, when you use your imagination and practice—you can bring any dream to life!” Like Piphus, May is Black; other characters are diverse.

Good-hearted but message-heavy.