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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

It’s impossible to find a solution that will solve every bullying situation, but empathy is always a fine place to start.

An internal monologue recounts an episode of bullying.

An unnamed, ungendered narrator is getting bullied at school. This school-aged child’s inescapable nemesis is Bully B. A spare script with pointed headlines describes daily occurrences: “What Bully B. Does Today: Looks me up and down. Shoves my books. Calls me Weirdo. / What Her Friends Do: Laugh. / What Everyone Else Does: Nothing.” However, the young protagonist is unsure of how to ask for help. “What I Say When Mom Asks How My Day at School Was: Fine.” This trenchant storytelling style is immediate and arresting. The staccato words capture both the sting of harsh actions and the matter-of-fact resignation that bullied children often feel. Sookocheff’s gray color palette with muted blues and greens intensifies the isolation. When the narrator does finally admit what is happening, Mom’s response is refreshing. She gives a lot of discussion time to how Bully B. may be feeling and why. She offers adult intervention as an option, but she also suggests a way for the kids to work it out between themselves. Nothing is perfect; the two certainly don’t end up being best friends, but an understanding is reached. The narrator is literally depicted as blue, and Bully B. as chartreuse, while the other children are colorless. Following the rapprochement, the two are revealed to have pale skin, while their classmates are revealed to be diverse.

It’s impossible to find a solution that will solve every bullying situation, but empathy is always a fine place to start. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: March 15, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-77147-165-7

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Owlkids Books

Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018

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IMANI'S MOON

While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child...

Imani endures the insults heaped upon her by the other village children, but she never gives up her dreams.

The Masai girl is tiny compared to the other children, but she is full of imagination and perseverance. Luckily, she has a mother who believes in her and tells her stories that will fuel that imagination. Mama tells her about the moon goddess, Olapa, who wins over the sun god. She tells Imani about Anansi, the trickster spider who vanquishes a larger snake. (Troublingly, the fact that Anansi is a West African figure, not of the Masai, goes unaddressed in both text and author’s note.) Inspired, the tiny girl tries to find new ways to achieve her dream: to touch the moon. One day, after crashing to the ground yet again when her leafy wings fail, she is ready to forget her hopes. That night, she witnesses the adumu, the special warriors’ jumping dance. Imani wakes the next morning, determined to jump to the moon. After jumping all day, she reaches the moon, meets Olapa and receives a special present from the goddess, a small moon rock. Now she becomes the storyteller when she relates her adventure to Mama. The watercolor-and-graphite illustrations have been enhanced digitally, and the night scenes of storytelling and fantasy with their glowing stars and moons have a more powerful impact than the daytime scenes, with their blander colors.

While the blend of folklore, fantasy and realism is certainly far-fetched, Imani, with her winning personality, is a child to be admired. (Picture book. 5-8)

Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-934133-57-6

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Mackinac Island Press

Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014

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TINY T. REX AND THE IMPOSSIBLE HUG

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.

With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?

Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.

Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)

Pub Date: March 5, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-4521-7033-6

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Chronicle Books

Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018

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