A reassuring, if not empowering, exploration of the disability experience.
In this follow-up to What Happened to You? (2023), Joe, who’s missing a leg, contends with scrutiny.
Joe is amazing. Everybody says so—whether he’s hanging on the monkey bars, eating ice cream, or even scratching his bottom. Joe thinks that speedy, athletic Simone is amazing, but onlookers only ever compliment Joe. Joe tries to be invisible so that everyone will praise Simone’s moves. But the parent of one of the kids at the park mistakes his hiding for self-pity and cajoles him to run and jump. Reluctantly, Joe complies, “because being Amazing Joe [is] better than being Poor Joe”—a bind that disabled readers in particular will recognize. All readers, however, will sympathize with Joe’s discomfort as playground visitors point and stare. Tired of “The Joe Show,” Joe practices soccer with a pal and experiences something truly amazing: scoring goals after many tries. The authors’ depiction of strangers’ well-meaning yet patronizing behavior, brought to life by George’s expressive cartoon illustrations, is uncomfortably realistic. The only solution that the book offers, however, is for Joe to surround himself with friends who accept him for who he is: “just Joe.” While supportive friends are helpful, disabled readers may desire concrete tips for directly addressing awkward interactions; moreover, the book seems to imply that disabled people must simply learn to put up with condescending remarks. Joe presents white, Simone is brown-skinned, and background characters are racially diverse.
A reassuring, if not empowering, exploration of the disability experience. (authors’ note) (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: April 16, 2024
ISBN: 9780316506571
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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