An emollient and digestible distillation of complex issues.
Where do our ideas and assumptions about gender come from, and how might they be holding us back?
Gravel and Blais—who is transgender—invite young readers to reflect on these questions. The book explains the difference between biological sex and gender identity, teaches about gender inclusive pronouns, and offers a capsule history of gender norms, showing how they have varied cross-culturally and throughout time. Children will also learn about the tough realities of gender stereotyping, gender inequality, gender policing, and homophobia. One double-page spread is devoted to affirming the multitude of gendered family structures that exist. The authors unequivocally make the case for gender diversity and gender parity using concrete, kid-friendly examples. Designed to prompt conversation, the book directly poses questions to readers such as “Do you think all people should be allowed to love whoever they want?” and “Should we feel bad about doing the things we like?” This strategy is mostly effective but at times undermines the potential for emotional resonance. Little attention is paid to social movements oriented around gender issues, although a few individual changemakers, like Malala Yousafzai, are highlighted. Unfortunately, the text often feels like an exercise in preaching to the choir; transphobes and critics of gender ideology aren't likely to be convinced that this rather didactic book holds value for youngsters in their care. Gravel’s colorful but not very saturated webcomics-style illustrations have strong visual appeal with their pithy speech bubbles, frameless panels, and interactive elements.
An emollient and digestible distillation of complex issues. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: March 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-17863-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Anne Schwartz/Random
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2022
Enthusiastic and direct, this paean has a lovely ring to it.
Former National Youth Poet Laureate Gorman invites girls to raise their voices and make a difference.
“Today, we finally have a say,” proclaims the first-person plural narration as three girls (one presents Black, another is brown-skinned, and the third is light-skinned) pass one another marshmallows on a stick around a campfire. In Wise’s textured, almost three-dimensional illustrations, the trio traverse fantastical, often abstract landscapes, playing, demonstrating, eating, and even flying, while confident rhymes sing their praises and celebrate collective female victories. The phrase “LIBERATION. FREEDOM. RESPECT” appears on a protest sign that bookends their journey. Simple and accessible, the rhythmic visual storytelling presents an optimistic vision of young people working toward a better world. Sometimes family members or other diverse comrades surround the girls, emphasizing that power comes from community. Gorman is careful to specify that “some of us go by she / And some of us go by they.” She affirms, too, that each person is “a different shape and size,” though the art doesn’t show much variation in body type. Characters also vary in ability. Real-life figures emerge as the girls dream of past luminaries such as author Octavia Butler and activist Marsha P. Johnson, along with present-day role models including poet and journalist Plestia Alaqad and athlete Sha’carri Richardson; silhouettes stand in for heroines as yet unknown. Imagining that “we are where change is going” is hopeful indeed.
Enthusiastic and direct, this paean has a lovely ring to it. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780593624180
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute.
Readers bid farewell to a beloved canine character.
Momo is—or was—an adorable and very photogenic border collie owned by author Knapp. The many readers who loved him in the previous half-dozen books are in for a shock with this one. “Momo had died” is the stark reality—and there are no photographs of him here. Instead, Momo has been replaced by a flat cartoonish pastiche with strange, staring round white eyes, inserted into some of Knapp’s photography (which remains appealing, insofar as it can be discerned under the mixed media). Previous books contained few or no words. Unfortunately, virtuosity behind a lens does not guarantee mastery of verse. The art here is accompanied by words that sometimes rhyme but never find a workable or predictable rhythm (“We’d fetch and we’d catch, / we’d run and we’d jump. Every day we found new / games to play”). It’s a pity, because the subject—a pet’s death—is an important one to address with children. Of course, Momo isn’t gone; he can still be found “everywhere” in memories. But alas, he can be found here only in the crude depictions of the darling dog so well known from the earlier books.
A well-meaning but lackluster tribute. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781683693864
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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