A revolutionary representation of joy and self-expression.
A loving mother helps her daughter express herself and feel like a rainbow.
Trinity, an autistic, Black, transgender girl wishes she had long hair. But growing it out is a struggle because she hates hair touching her neck. Seeing her daughter’s sadness, Trinity’s mom, a Black cisgender woman with natural hair cropped close, listens to Trinity’s concerns. At first, she tries to reassure Trinity that girls can wear their hair short, but Trinity still doesn’t feel happy. Honoring the truth that Trinity knows herself best, Trinity’s mom puts her love and devotion into creating a curly, teal, pink, and purple wig for Trinity, with some help from Trinity’s older sibling. Richly colored and invitingly detailed full-spread illustrations that complement the story’s title and theme accompany the text. The narrative centers a Black family whose members are depicted in the illustrations with skin that is a range of rich browns. In the midst of Trinity’s struggle with her gender expression, her mom models listening and affirmation. She acknowledges that her own experiences with societal expectations of gender expression as a cisgender woman are different from Trinity’s. Even as the story shifts to show Trinity’s cisgender mother’s perspective, Trinity’s feelings remain the focus and her happiness the motivation. Apart from the use of person-first language (“kids with autism”) instead of identity-first language, Neal and Neal emphasize that all aspects of Trinity’s identity deserve celebration and make her a masterpiece. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10.8-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 60.9% of actual size.)
A revolutionary representation of joy and self-expression. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-984814-60-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift.
A paean to teachers and their surrogates everywhere.
This gentle ode to a teacher’s skill at inspiring, encouraging, and being a role model is spoken, presumably, from a child’s viewpoint. However, the voice could equally be that of an adult, because who can’t look back upon teachers or other early mentors who gave of themselves and offered their pupils so much? Indeed, some of the self-aware, self-assured expressions herein seem perhaps more realistic as uttered from one who’s already grown. Alternatively, readers won’t fail to note that this small book, illustrated with gentle soy-ink drawings and featuring an adult-child bear duo engaged in various sedentary and lively pursuits, could just as easily be about human parent- (or grandparent-) child pairs: some of the softly colored illustrations depict scenarios that are more likely to occur within a home and/or other family-oriented setting. Makes sense: aren’t parents and other close family members children’s first teachers? This duality suggests that the book might be best shared one-on-one between a nostalgic adult and a child who’s developed some self-confidence, having learned a thing or two from a parent, grandparent, older relative, or classroom instructor.
A sweet, soft conversation starter and a charming gift. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: March 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943200-08-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Compendium
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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
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