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BROWN GIRL, BROWN GIRL

Name: BROWN GIRL, BROWN GIRL
Author: Leslé Honoré
ISBN: 9780316314039

by Leslé Honoré ; illustrated by Cozbi A. Cabrera ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 19, 2024

Warmly, brilliantly welcoming—and not to be missed.

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Honoré’s verse highlighting the strength and heart of Black and brown girls comes alive in this picture-book collaboration with Cabrera.

The poem, which was written in 2016 for the author’s own daughters but went viral after Kamala Harris was elected vice president, leads readers in a dance of spoken word and brilliant art. “Brown girl, brown girl / what did you see? // A world that sees my skin / before it sees me,” peals a frank and somber first note that gives way to the chorus of resistance behind it. The artwork follows suit, moving fluidly from a muted image of an isolated, ungrounded figure curled small to a group of girls confidently standing together. The call-and-response style continues, gaining not so much momentum as lift. “Brown girl, Brown girl / what did you do?…what do you feel?…who will you be?” The text soars higher and higher, moving from past to present to future tense. The illustrations intertwine softness and boldness with page after page of brown girls belonging, a visual togetherness that both honors and bridges individual and generational differences. With the gentle crescendo found in familiar reads such as Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? the book invites readers in with its rhythm and luminous full-page spreads, reminding them that call and response is more than just communal storytelling—it is the community.

Warmly, brilliantly welcoming—and not to be missed. (author's note) (Picture book. 3-8)

Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2024

ISBN: 9780316314039

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: today

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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CARPENTER'S HELPER

by Sybil Rosen ; illustrated by Camille Garoche ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 16, 2021

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story.

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A home-renovation project is interrupted by a family of wrens, allowing a young girl an up-close glimpse of nature.

Renata and her father enjoy working on upgrading their bathroom, installing a clawfoot bathtub, and cutting a space for a new window. One warm night, after Papi leaves the window space open, two wrens begin making a nest in the bathroom. Rather than seeing it as an unfortunate delay of their project, Renata and Papi decide to let the avian carpenters continue their work. Renata witnesses the birth of four chicks as their rosy eggs split open “like coats that are suddenly too small.” Renata finds at a crucial moment that she can help the chicks learn to fly, even with the bittersweet knowledge that it will only hasten their exits from her life. Rosen uses lively language and well-chosen details to move the story of the baby birds forward. The text suggests the strong bond built by this Afro-Latinx father and daughter with their ongoing project without needing to point it out explicitly, a light touch in a picture book full of delicate, well-drawn moments and precise wording. Garoche’s drawings are impressively detailed, from the nest’s many small bits to the developing first feathers on the chicks and the wall smudges and exposed wiring of the renovation. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.)

Renata’s wren encounter proves magical, one most children could only wish to experience outside of this lovely story. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: March 16, 2021

ISBN: 978-0-593-12320-1

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random

Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021

Categories:

CHILDREN'S ANIMALS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S FAMILY

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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)