Genhart draws on his own family’s history for inspiration in his newest diversity-celebrating picture book.
Abuelo plays accordion in a mariachi band where he “hoots and hollers” louder than anyone. Opa plays accordion in a polka band where his yodels can “[make] the windows shake.” But when Abuelo and Opa get together at their grandchild’s home, the Mexican-German cultural divide seems a chasm too wide to span. Though both are perfectly polite, an uncomfortable silence begins to settle—until the empathetic protagonist encourages them both to get out their accordions. Through their shared love of music, harmony is soon restored and a bridge built between two cultures. This is a reassuring story, emphasizing that though we may be different we can find common ground, an especially important message for multiracial/multiethnic children who can often feel pulled between competing identities. Burris’ dot-eyed and brightly colored illustrations are darling, highlighting each culture well. The narrator has light-brown skin and dark hair; Abuelo’s side of the family has brown skin and Opa’s, white. As mixed-race families continue to grow, this title is sure to find a ready audience. Notes from both author and illustrator celebrate their own multiethnic backgrounds, which contributed to the story.
A warm musical celebration of multicultural families . (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4338-3074-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Magination/American Psychological Association
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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A playful counting book also acts as a celebration of family and human diversity.
Shannon’s text is delivered in spare, rhythmic, lilting verse that begins with one and counts up to 10 as it presents different groupings of things and people in individual families, always emphasizing the unitary nature of each combination. “One is six. One line of laundry. One butterfly’s legs. One family.” Gomez’s richly colored pictures clarify and expand on all that the text lists: For “six,” a picture showing six members of a multigenerational family of color includes a line of laundry with six items hanging from it outside of their windows, as well as the painting of a six-legged butterfly that a child in the family is creating. While text never directs the art to depict diverse individuals and family constellations, Gomez does just this in her illustrations. Interracial families are included, as are depictions of men with their arms around each other, and a Sikh man wearing a turban. This inclusive spirit supports the text’s culminating assertion that “One is one and everyone. One earth. One world. One family.”
A visually striking, engaging picture book that sends the message that everyone counts. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: May 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-374-30003-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
Categories: CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It may be his mothers’ wedding day, but it’s Donovan’s big day in Newman’s (Heather Has Two Mommies, 1989, etc.) latest picture book about queer family life. Centered on the child’s experience and refreshingly eschewing reference to controversy, the book emerges as a celebration of not only Mommy’s and Mama’s mutual love but progress toward equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. Readers, however, don't know immediately know why it is “a very BIG day” for Donovan or what the “very BIG job” is that he has to do. In his affectionate, humorous gouache paintings with digital finish, Dutton cleverly includes clues in the form of family pictures in an earlier spread set inside their home, and then a later spread shows Donovan in a suit and placing a “little white satin box that Aunt Jennifer gave him” into his pocket, hinting toward his role as ring bearer. But it’s not until the third-to-last spread that he stands with his parents and hands “one shiny gold ring to Mommy [and] one shiny gold ring to Mama.” He, of course, gets to kiss the brides on the last page, lending a happily-ever-after sensibility to the end of this story about a family's new beginning. (Picture book. 3-6)
Pub Date: April 26, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-58246-332-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Tricycle
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2011
Categories: CHILDREN'S FAMILY
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