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WE ARE THE BUILDERS!

Name: WE ARE THE BUILDERS!
Author: Deepa Iyer
ISBN: 9781665932431

by Deepa Iyer ; illustrated by Romina Galotta ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 17, 2024

Though light on practical details, this book will inspire social justice–minded readers.

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Lawyer and racial justice advocate Iyer has adapted her “social change ecosystem map”—a framework that explains how people can make a difference—into a picture book for young activists.

It’s Community Day, a chance for kids and grown-ups alike to volunteer. A guide named Ramla walks everyone through a variety of roles involved in effecting social change, including builders, caregivers, and storytellers. On each page, Ramla describes a different role and asks: Who wants to join in? These questions are posed to the book’s characters, but they can easily be interpreted as a call to action for readers, too. The book’s rhyming, often poetic text and its use of repetition make it a good read-aloud option. Iyer links some roles to specific actions, such as the experimenters, who upcycle old rags and bottles into backpacks. Others are described more abstractly, such as the weavers, who “find what connects / you and me.” The backmatter offers thought-provoking questions for readers but doesn’t explore these roles more in depth or include specific task suggestions. The watercolor and colored pencil illustrations are filled with details, inviting curious youngsters to find something new on each reread. The community is diverse; the only named character, Ramla, is a hijabi with dark brown skin.

Though light on practical details, this book will inspire social justice–minded readers. (author’s note, social change ecosystem map) (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024

ISBN: 9781665932431

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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IMANI'S MOON

by JaNay Brown-Wood ; illustrated by Hazel Mitchell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 14, 2014

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

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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)