by Molli Jackson Ehlert ; illustrated by Lorian Tu ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 15, 2023
Honest, loving, and powerful.
Ehlert and Tu offer a primer on body neutrality.
In simple, straightforward text, readers are reminded that “Your body is your body. It doesn’t look like anyone else’s. It doesn’t feel like anyone else’s.” Depicting characters who are diverse in terms of race, age, size, ability, and preference, different pages focus on the myriad ways bodies can exist in the world. “Some move in different ways, / some see in different ways,” among them an older dark-skinned person with a cane and a guide dog, a younger Asian-appearing person stimming with headphones on, and another younger dark-skinned person using a fidget toy. The text “Some just got here, / some have been here a long time” is accompanied by a touching image of an elder cradling an infant, both brown-skinned. The illustrations include enough kinds of people, all shown as friendly, rounded, and smiling, that nearly all readers will be able to point at someone and say, “That’s like me!” The plain language belies the profound message that some will be able to pull out; an afterword more fully defines body neutrality, or the idea that readers need not love their bodies but that we should all respect and accept them. “Allow yourself to just feel meh” and “Think of your body as a house” are especially important messages to instill in people just learning how to conceptualize their physical selves. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Honest, loving, and powerful. (Picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2023
ISBN: 9781250854445
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
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by Shelley Rotner ; photographed by Shelley Rotner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 5, 2017
Bruce Goldstone’s Awesome Autumn (2012) is still the gold standard.
Rotner follows Hello Spring (2017) with this salute to the fall season.
Name a change seen in northern climes in fall, and Rotner likely covers it here, from plants, trees, and animals to the food we harvest: seeds are spread, the days grow shorter and cooler, the leaves change and fall (and are raked up and jumped in), some animals migrate, and many families celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving. As in the previous book, the photographs (presented in a variety of sizes and layouts, all clean) are the stars here, displaying both the myriad changes of the season and a multicultural array of children enjoying the outdoors in fall. These are set against white backgrounds that make the reddish-orange print pop. The text itself uses short sentences and some solid vocabulary (though “deep sleep” is used instead of “hibernate”) to teach readers the markers of autumn, though in the quest for simplicity, Rotner sacrifices some truth. In several cases, the addition of just a few words would have made the following oversimplified statements reflect reality: “Birds grow more feathers”; “Cranberries float and turn red.” Also, Rotner includes the statement “Bees store extra honey in their hives” on a page about animals going into deep sleep, implying that honeybees hibernate, which is false.
Bruce Goldstone’s Awesome Autumn (2012) is still the gold standard. (Informational picture book. 4-7)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3869-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
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More by Gwen Agna
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by Gwen Agna & Shelley Rotner ; photographed by Shelley Rotner
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by Shelley Rotner ; illustrated by Shelley Rotner
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by Gwen Agna & Shelley Rotner ; photographed by Shelley Rotner
by Chana Ginelle Ewing ; illustrated by Paulina Morgan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019
Adults will do better skipping the book and talking with their children.
Social-equity themes are presented to children in ABC format.
Terms related to intersectional inequality, such as “class,” “gender,” “privilege,” “oppression,” “race,” and “sex,” as well as other topics important to social justice such as “feminism,” “human being,” “immigration,” “justice,” “kindness,” “multicultural,” “transgender,” “understanding,” and “value” are named and explained. There are 26 in all, one for each letter of the alphabet. Colorful two-page spreads with kid-friendly illustrations present each term. First the term is described: “Belief is when you are confident something exists even if you can’t see it. Lots of different beliefs fill the world, and no single belief is right for everyone.” On the facing page it concludes: “B is for BELIEF / Everyone has different beliefs.” It is hard to see who the intended audience for this little board book is. Babies and toddlers are busy learning the names for their body parts, familiar objects around them, and perhaps some basic feelings like happy, hungry, and sad; slightly older preschoolers will probably be bewildered by explanations such as: “A value is an expression of how to live a belief. A value can serve as a guide for how you behave around other human beings. / V is for VALUE / Live your beliefs out loud.”
Adults will do better skipping the book and talking with their children. (Board book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-78603-742-8
Page Count: 52
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
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