WEIRD AND WONDERFUL YOU
by Zaila Avant-garde ; illustrated by Kah Yangni
Equal parts affirmation and call to action, this picture book from 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee champ Avant-garde encourages readers to celebrate the weirdness all around.
“We are perfectly weird and weirdly perfect,” says Avant-garde. She urges youngsters to challenge the status quo, stand out, and be themselves. That might look like peeling bananas from the bottom up, knowing the name for the smell of the earth after it rains (it’s petrichor), wearing butterfly wings, or simply taking up space. Tidbits of uplifting text bounce across each page, sprinkled with inspiring quotes from powerful figures who have marched to the beat of their own drums, from Dolly Parton to Mae Jemison. Both the quotes and Avant-garde’s prose serve to motivate young readers, though the ideas and themes are meandering, with little narrative throughline. Kids will revel in the book’s fresh, wildly colorful art, though the images aren’t always reflective of the text. Yangni’s layered, dynamic illustrations provide a paint-splotched visual feast. Characters who vary in skin color, body type, ability, and more, and from many walks of life, strut across swirling rainbows and through surreal landscapes, eagerly showing off what makes them different.
A joyous, wandering book of affirmations for the wonderful weirdo inside each of us.
(Picture book. 5-8)