A heartwarming story of family and belonging.
A wheelchair basketball player plans a party.
Apolonia can’t wait to celebrate her birthday. She’s inviting “todos—teammates and primas!” to the gym, where they’ll play wheelchair basketball and eat tacos de arracheras, arroz y frijoles, and tres leches. But her racially diverse teammates anticipate pizza and ice cream—what if they don’t like Papá’s menu? And when Apolonia’s cousins learn they’ll be “playing basketball en sillas de ruedas,” they giggle: “So weird!” Apolonia worries that wheelchair basketball and her Mexican American family won’t mix. Finally, she tells Mamá to cancel the party, “because I’m always so different…even from you.” But the next day, Mamá brings Apolonia to the gym, where friends and family surprise her with a flawless fiesta. Apolonia’s heart soars as she joins the basketball game: “Everyone is there. Juntos. All of Apolonia!” Energetic, expressive cartoon illustrations convey Apolonia’s many emotions and, above all, her family’s love. In an author’s note, Prevo defines inclusion, belonging, and social identity and explains that the story is based on her experiences as a Mexican and disabled person. Readers navigating multiple cultural identities will empathize with Apolonia’s conflicting feelings, and disabled readers will welcome the acknowledgment that being disabled in a nondisabled family can be lonely. All will cheer for Apolonia. Interspersed Spanish words are understandable through context. Apolonia and Mamá have tan skin; her family’s complexions vary.
A heartwarming story of family and belonging. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 24, 2026
ISBN: 9781419772849
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads.
Emma deals with jitters before playing the guitar in the school talent show.
Pop musician Kevin Jonas and his wife, Danielle, put performance at the center of their picture-book debut. When Emma is intimidated by her very talented friends, the encouragement of her younger sister, Bella, and the support of her family help her to shine her own light. The story is straightforward and the moral familiar: Draw strength from your family and within to overcome your fears. Employing the performance-anxiety trope that’s been written many times over, the book plods along predictably—there’s nothing really new or surprising here. Dawson’s full-color digital illustrations center a White-presenting family along with Emma’s three friends of color: Jamila has tanned skin and wears a hijab; Wendy has dark brown skin and Afro puffs; and Luis has medium brown skin. Emma’s expressive eyes and face are the real draw of the artwork—from worry to embarrassment to joy, it’s clear what she’s feeling. A standout double-page spread depicts Emma’s talent show performance, with a rainbow swirl of music erupting from an amp and Emma rocking a glam outfit and electric guitar. Overall, the book reads pretty plainly, buoyed largely by the artwork. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Nice enough but not worth repeat reads. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-35207-6
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
The snappy text will get toes tapping, but the information it carries is limited.
Dancing is one of the most universal elements of cultures the world over.
In onomatopoeic, rhyming text, Bolling encourages readers to dance in styles including folk dance, classical ballet, breakdancing, and line dancing. Read aloud, the zippy text will engage young children: “Tappity Tap / Fingers Snap,” reads the rhyme on the double-page spread for flamenco; “Jiggity-Jig / Zig-zag-zig” describes Irish step dancing. The ballet pages stereotypically include only children in dresses or tutus, but one of these dancers wears hijab. Overall, children included are racially diverse and vary in gender presentation. Diaz’s illustrations show her background in animated films; her active child dancers generally have the large-eyed sameness of cartoon characters. The endpapers, with shoes and musical instruments, could become a matching game with pages in the book. The dances depicted are described at the end, including kathak from India and kuku from Guinea, West Africa. Unfortunately, these explanations are quite rudimentary. Kathak dancers use their facial expressions extensively in addition to the “movements of their hands and their jingling feet,” as described in the book. Although today kuku is danced at all types of celebrations in several countries, it was once done after fishing, an activity acknowledged in the illustrations but not mentioned in the explanatory text.
The snappy text will get toes tapping, but the information it carries is limited. (Informational picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63592-142-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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