by Sanya Whittaker Gragg illustrated by Kim Holt ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 12, 2017
A heartbreakingly necessary work.
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In this rhyming picture book, black parents tell their sons how to behave if approached by a police officer.
A young black child is distressed by the news that police have shot another man. “They say he had a little girl, / Bet she misses him a lot,” says the worried boy. His brother is upset, too, about other shootings: “One boy was eating skittles. / Dad, I like to eat them too!” The boys’ father decides it’s time for “THE TALK”—one that will be sadly familiar to many parents of color. To be safe around police, the parents say, one must remember the acronym “ALIVE”: “ALWAYS USE YOUR MANNERS!,” “LISTEN AND COMPLY!,” “Stay IN CONTROL of your emotions!,” “VISIBLE hands at ALL times!,” and “EXPLAIN any movement!” The parents remind their sons that, although it’s natural to be angry and sad, it’s not right to blame all officers for the behavior of some. In her debut book, Gragg (Daddy, Did You Hear the News?, 2018) offers straightforward, useful, and easily remembered guidelines, though the fact that they’re needed is wrenching. Nearly all picture books about police only emphasize their trustworthiness, so Gragg fills a crucial gap in the literature while depicting remarkably evenhanded emotions. Holt’s illustrations depict the loving family well and show diverse characters, including a black officer.
A heartbreakingly necessary work.Pub Date: April 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5423-3253-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Louis Sachar ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this...
Sentenced to a brutal juvenile detention camp for a crime he didn't commit, a wimpy teenager turns four generations of bad family luck around in this sunburnt tale of courage, obsession, and buried treasure from Sachar (Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, 1995, etc.).
Driven mad by the murder of her black beau, a schoolteacher turns on the once-friendly, verdant town of Green Lake, Texas, becomes feared bandit Kissin' Kate Barlow, and dies, laughing, without revealing where she buried her stash. A century of rainless years later, lake and town are memories—but, with the involuntary help of gangs of juvenile offenders, the last descendant of the last residents is still digging. Enter Stanley Yelnats IV, great-grandson of one of Kissin' Kate's victims and the latest to fall to the family curse of being in the wrong place at the wrong time; under the direction of The Warden, a woman with rattlesnake venom polish on her long nails, Stanley and each of his fellow inmates dig a hole a day in the rock-hard lake bed. Weeks of punishing labor later, Stanley digs up a clue, but is canny enough to conceal the information of which hole it came from. Through flashbacks, Sachar weaves a complex net of hidden relationships and well-timed revelations as he puts his slightly larger-than-life characters under a sun so punishing that readers will be reaching for water bottles.
Good Guys and Bad get just deserts in the end, and Stanley gets plenty of opportunities to display pluck and valor in this rugged, engrossing adventure. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 978-0-374-33265-5
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2000
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by Emily Winfield Martin ; illustrated by Emily Winfield Martin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 25, 2015
Wonderful, indeed
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A love song to baby with delightful illustrations to boot.
Sweet but not saccharine and singsong but not forced, Martin’s text is one that will invite rereadings as it affirms parental wishes for children while admirably keeping child readers at its heart. The lines that read “This is the first time / There’s ever been you, / So I wonder what wonderful things / You will do” capture the essence of the picture book and are accompanied by a diverse group of babies and toddlers clad in downright adorable outfits. Other spreads include older kids, too, and pictures expand on the open text to visually interpret the myriad possibilities and hopes for the depicted children. For example, a spread reading “Will you learn how to fly / To find the best view?” shows a bespectacled, school-aged girl on a swing soaring through an empty white background. This is just one spread in which Martin’s fearless embrace of the white of the page serves her well. Throughout the book, she maintains a keen balance of layout choices, and surprising details—zebras on the wallpaper behind a father cradling his child, a rock-’n’-roll band of mice paralleling the children’s own band called “The Missing Teeth”—add visual interest and gentle humor. An ideal title for the baby-shower gift bag and for any nursery bookshelf or lap-sit storytime.
Wonderful, indeed . (Picture book. 1-4)Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-37671-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
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