TRUE TO MYSELF

Reggae artist Marley returns with another picture book adapted from one of his songs.

“Life has come a long way since yesterday, / and it’s not the same old thing over again.” OK, those lyrics may be a little baroque for the first page of a children’s book, but hear Marley out! Those words (and the following) are attributed to a conscientious kid who’s waking up eager to embrace the day: “I’m growing up strong, becoming who I am. / Happy and bright, I’m shining my light.” (Those lines aren’t in Marley’s song and were presumably written specially for this book.) The kid finds a bracelet on the playground and later, at school, returns it to the classmate who dropped it; in turn, that child takes over the book’s perspective and does a good deed—by making a new student feel welcome. On it goes: kids modeling socially upstanding behavior for one another, the odd wrongdoer later remorseful and willing to mend fences. The hit that inspired the book has a repetitive chorus that Marley has wisely pared down to a simple refrain here—“I’ve got to be / TRUE TO MYSELF!”—which means that the jaunty text works whether readers know the song or not. Evans’ exuberantly colorful digital art presents the cast, a multiracial assortment of young cuties, in a tidy urban setting.

An uplifting, community-minded, danceable effort.