THE SONG FOR EVERYONE: A Musical, Mystical Masterpiece

I'm a sucker for illustrations. 
The cover and the end papers for THE SONG FOR EVERYONE had me at the opening note, so to speak. Author/illustrator Lucy Morris has created a book that sings to me.

Waves of swirling, floating, interconnected, airy, floral details move across the pages like the sweep and lift of a conductor's baton. Rather than musical notes or more literal images, these delicately drawn and gently colored snippets combine to create the visual song that is, indeed, for everyone in a somber little village.

 
Without knowing its source, the music transforms the people of that town, one by one, story by story, Until the song suddenly stops. Sadness descends. But the people do not revert to their previous isolated lives. Instead, the awakening they experienced draws them together to restore the missing music. 
There is so much to love in the literal story, in both text and image. There is even more to appreciate when this is viewed as an analogy about the impact of music on individuals and even more so, on community.

Picture books are, by definition, stories told through visual narratives, exclusively or in combination with text. That sounds easy--  to people who haven't tried it. 

In fact, the text of a superb picture book is like the most literary poetry- not necessary rhymed or formally constrained, but text in which every single word is purposeful, effective, and sings.. 

Illustrations do NOT simply translate words into pictures. Instead, illustrations share the task of storytelling in every way, expanding and exploring and elevating quality text to even higher levels of excellence and meaning and emotion. THE SONG FOR EVERYONE does all that, and more.

As Covid 19 continues to isolate and inhibit our "before" lives, particularly during the approach of dark winter days and reshaped holidays, many are turning to music for comfort. That could include holiday or religious songs, learning new (or returning to prior) instruments, or even appreciating the sounds of migrating birds. Until gathering in groups to sing is again possible, as in places of prayer, neighborhood caroling, or concerts, letting music into your lives can be a balm to the spirit.

Two Irresistible Cybils Fiction Picture Book Nominees: Stories of Separation

Image alert:  My cover images are not uploading as of publication for the post, but I'll continue t work at adding them back in when the glitch is resolved. Meanwhile, click on each of the titles  in the text to view them at the Indiebound.org web page. 

Covid 19 note: 

Regardless of where in the world we find ourselves, the coming months will encompass many holidays. "Where in the world" may mean physically (in the USA or elsewhere), culturally (by ethnicity or religious identities), or simply finding ourselves connected to multi-generational traditions. One thing that will be true across these identities (and far beyond) is that 2020 holidays will NOT repeat all traditional celebrations and past practices. Finding ways to preserve the spirit and joy despite separations and limitations could be challenging, but IS possible, and merits our attention and effort. 

So, yet again, I'll  risk sounding like a broken record. I wonder how many readers know that phrase or recognize the reference to a "record" skipping, repeatedly producing the same phrase? At any rate, my repetitive claim, the one that launched this blog, is: 

"Picture books are for every age!"

Two titles among the many outstanding picture books I've been reading as a Cybils panelist for fiction picture books are ideal examples of this thesis. Both have much to offer in the way of wisdom and comfort during times of separation and change, especially when longing could overwhelm us. 

 EVELYN DEL REY IS MOVING AWAY is written by Newbery Award-winning  Meg Medina and illustrated by Sonia Sanchez. It's no surprise when Meg Medina's books channel the truths and hearts of young characters. In this case, her format is an expansive and vibrantly colored picture book about the parting of numero uno best friends, the narrator Daniela and her moving-away mejor amiga, Evelyn Del Rey. 

Readers quickly absorb the unlimited connection and affection of these friends who are "almost twins", revealed during the final hours while they are still neighbors. Their 'almost twin" bedrooms are connected by a rigged clothesline pulley between their windows). In those limited hours while the moving truck "gobbles up" Evelyn's family's boxes and furniture, they share lovely and lively experiences. Snippets of interactions include multi-cultural neighbors, understanding parents, and the deeply felt sadness despite understanding.

This story, these characters, and the powerful illustrations merit many re-readings. 
The dedication and the final spread underscore the reality that friendships span distance AND time, whether that means moving away or adjusting to new ways to celebrate a holiday. 

 

TWO BICYCLES IN BEIJING is witten by Teresa Robeson and is illustrated by Junyi Wu. Two brightly-colored bikes are the central characters in this charming tale set in Beijing, China. The sunny yellow bone and the robust red one leave the factory together, lean together in a shop window, and feel deeply connected. Third person narration is interrupted by the thoughts of the red bike, Lunzi, during alert travels as transportation of the buyer, a delivery boy. That launches the Lunzi's watchful attention in busy Beijing streets, alleys, and pathways, ever alert for a flash of yellow, the other bike, Huangche. In the course of a day, those flashes of yellow introduce readers to iconic locations and activities from the city, interspersed with a few Mandarin Chinese words and named landmarks. 
It is not easy to embue a couple of bicycles with personalities and emotions. That is especially so when it's achieved almost entirely with voice and subtle hints in the illustrations, not obvious facial features or other anthropomorphic details. The resolution arrives naturally, with an added sense of joyful discovery. It is an enormous challenge to create a picture book with kid-appeal featuring adult (or near adult) characters.Centering the focus on the bikes and their emotional motivations will hold natural appeal for little readers, inviting attention and curiosity about the visual and cultural hallmarks of Beijing. 

In both cases, these recent picture books are lovely stories featuring diverse populations (in both settings) and the centered characters are in densely populated communities. In both, the feeling that only one particular person (or bike) truly matters resonates from the ages and touch readers' hearts. 

In each case these characters are spending time out and about, in the "real world". Let this be a a reminder that Covid-induced isolation will eventually pass. Even then, we will regularly confront emotional losses. Separations and missing loved ones will continue to cause sadness and worry. 

Let's make sure we all get there, safely and well. It's worth the current sense of loss in missing traditional gatherings and travel to reduce the impact of this pandemic and preserve the health of those we love and care about so deeply. 

A Feast of Text and Illustration Celebrates Young Black Lives

  My recent post featured the important, little-known story of TEACHER HEROES in the Civil Rights movement in Selma Alabama. I hope you read the review and will check out this book. Then  share the JANE ADDAMS PEACE AWARD finalist with kids and adults, far and wide. Historic figures like Reverend F. D. Reeves and groups who summoned the courage to show up and stand up need to be widely recognized and appreciated. 

I concluded that post, though, with a short note and several links to titles that celebrate the equal importance of sharing books, stories, lives, and resources about contemporary figures, joyous childhood experiences, and the wholeness of BLACK LIVES.

I begin with this initial connection between schools and the teachers in them to raise the painfully true issue of the many ways in which schools do not treat all children equally. In fact, current public schools are staffed predominantly by teachers who are White and female. Too often, school routines and conventions actively erase, invalidate, or (to our shame) punish Black children more often and more severely than others. 

This is true for both boys and girls, but most harmfully so for Back boys.

Nancy Paulsen Books, 2020

The amazing (and multi-award-winning) team of author DERRICK BARNES and illustrator/fine artist GORDON C.JAMES again worked their magic to produce an astonishingly gorgeous picture book,      I AM EVERY GOOD THING.  

Their previous masterpiece, CROWN: AN ODE TO THE FRESH CUT (2018) was breathtaking in poetic voice, joyful and expressive paintings, and exclamatory content. I offered a brief review with other titles in celebration of the identities of Black boys in this post. I was far from a lone voice in singing its praises. During its award season this first collaboration earned enough awards to replace all the the stars on the cover with awards stickers, and it continues to win state and kid-choice and other recognitions in the years since.  

It is not surprising that publishers would encourage further creative collaborations. Surely, though, this new picture book exceeds any expectations about what would come next. It definitely exceeded my lofty hopes. 

If you were to hear even a short sample of text from this recent book on a radio program, no images available, you would certainly be grinning ear to ear and stand taller in your bones, whatever your racial or ethnic identity. 

For example:

"I am 

a nonstop ball of energy.

Powerful and full of light.

I am a go-getter, A difference maker.

A leader." 

You can listen to a recent NPR (10/24/2020) interview with the creators HERE.

Every child (and adult) would benefit from reciting such "I-statements" to begin the day, confront challenges, introduce ourselves to others, and view ourselves taking as having a rightful place in the world. 

On the face of it, an illustrator would be hard-pressed to add anything to such an empowering verse. But the art James created for these lines (and all the others) manages to magnify and internalize Barnes's potent text even further by revealing faces, scenes, perspectives, angles, and potentials of Black boys with a variety of features, skin tones, hair choices, postures, and attitudes. Each is an individual, and each interprets this brilliant text from inside out.

Interior Spread: I AM EVERY GOOD THING
Nancy Paulsen Books, 2020

In doing so, a brilliant anthem for Black males becomes an anthology of countless visual biographies. Specific and worthy and lovable lives are written in the eyes, encounters, and possibilities portrayed. Images like these provide a perfect integration of contemporary lives with the many centuries (millennia) of inheritance that produced these individuals and their stories. Whether that history is celebratory, courageous, or even tragic, it is far too often the SINGLE story of Black lives. If classroom inventories of books exploring Black lives were honestly evaluated, the bulk of titles would focus, in story and image, on the injustices, losses, endangerment, and eventual survival of people with dark skin. Most would be hauled out and shared during February, then packed away for another year. Few, if any, would reflect these exuberant, smiling, confident faces. 

Interior Spread, YOU ARE EVERY GOOD THING
Jane Paulsen Books, 2020

More celebratory and adventuresome and comical books featuring contemporary Black kids have been published in recent years. Many more are in the pipeline, but not nearly enough. This is, in part, why I AM EVERY GOOD THING is a must-have title, an anchor choice for classrooms of every age and color and identity. It provides a lens through which to view existing collections and a guide for additions to family and classroom and library collections. Each of those singular and important legacy titles must be kept in context, recognizing the heroism of Black youth (and adults) who summon the inner joy to face each day with an embrace of themselves, as voiced on the closing page:

"I am worthy

to be loved."

As someone who resists answering the inevitable "What is your favorite...?" questions, I will warmly and eagerly include this among the titles on my "One of my favorite..." lists. I hope you will, too.

LIGHTS OUT: Losing DARK of NIGHT to Light Pollution

Nonfiction picture books are enjoying glorious (and valuable) success in the publishing world. What's more, the bar for these books is getting higher and wider regarding possible subject matter, intended audiences, supplemental content, and expert collaboration. This is as it should be. Kids can begin lifelong careers, hobbies, and fascinations through discoveries in picture books.

Sometimes, though, a serious nonfiction topic is addressed with grace and persuasive authority through fiction. A heart-tugging approach to hard science can be an equally powerful introduction to nonfiction issues and topics. This is the case with Cybils Awards fiction picture book nominee LIGHTS OUT.

The Creative Company, 2020

Marsha Diane Arnold lends her magical storytelling voice to the topic of LIGHT POLLUTION, revealing its impact on familiar life forms. Most creatures have evolved to respond to daily and seasonal cycles of light and darkness over millennia. Their survival depends on these instinctual patterns, which have been increasingly  disrupted by barely two centuries of population growth and resulting artificial light. Humans are steadily destroying the "Dark of Night" with artificial light, and the change is happening far too quickly to allow for various species to adapt.

Arnold's opening message addresses this with a brief description of ways brightened night skies are a dangerous form of pollution, ways that we ignore at the cost of losing valuable and beloved species from our natural world.

That brief introductory passage is written in a friendly, explanatory style. 

The language Arnold uses to explore this scientific reality in the story that follows adopts a lyrical, emotional, and compelling style, one ideally paired with the illustrations of Susan Reagan. 

Begin by examining that cover image and title. Creatures of air, land, and water peer out of the shadows, distressed at the unexpected LIGHT of the night. The design to the title itself is worth considering. The progressively light-to-dark letters are each slightly fractured, and the "I" is represented by a beetle. Adults wo read to children often miss these intentional elements, but kids find them every single time. 

The beetle is a character in the story and merits our attention on every page. End papers show a rush of newly hatched sea turtles, their race urging us forward to the opening page turn. I have no doubt that some young eyes will "read" them as stars spreading across the page. 

The story begins with Little Fox and Beetle, whose upper case letters indicated to me that they are each individuals, anthropomorphized just enough to share their views and voices with us, the readers, but retaining authentic identities of their species from the natural world. A few lines of economic but imperative language occupy the otherwise blank left spread, faced by a brightly lit night scene filled with shafts and glows and bouncing brightness:

"Little Fox peeks out from her den.

Beetle flits above her.

'Lights out!' she barks.

But the lights stay on."

The following pages reveal the many sources of light, in every color, shape, and direction. The illustrations are as masterful as the text at introducing the nighttime lights we take for granted, recognizable here as sinister assaults on Nature's much-needed Dark. 

Dark emerges as threatened by the lights as the animals are. 

Migrating birds and nocturnal owls are affected. Little Fox and Beetle wonder if Dark is lost, and they set out to help. Throughout their travels and encounters with fellow night creatures, the Dark of Night eludes them, It has been crowded out by lights from manmade sources, lights that stop the mating songs of Frog, that confuse the internal star maps of birds, that alter Bear's hibernation instincts. 

These animals become a band of journeyers, visiting many landforms, but unable to locate the Dark of Night and all that it has to offer.

When those hatchling sea turtles need their help, the intrepid animals do their best, leading readers to a set of final spreads and text that deserve to be framed and displayed. The imagery of the art and the satisfying story resolve make this picture book one of the best I've read this year. 

This can be read as a sweet animal story-time book, as an extended analogy or fable about an important science topic, as an illustration mentor for mastery of light, shadow, and minimal color palette, or as a charming bedtime book. In each case it will rise to the top of those categories with room to spare. The power of this seemingly simple, quiet story is the balance among characterization, storytelling, mood, language, dramatic tension, specificity of detail, and universal global implications. 

I hope you'll make it a point to read this book, and then share it. Young audiences are likely to become so invested that they may seek answers to the important question: "What can we do to help?" Arnold mentions an excellent resource in that opening statement. If you click LIGHT POLLUTION above, you can learn about ways to actively reduce the damage that our "civilized" lives are doing with articifical light to a vast network of living things, including ourselves.

Teacher Heroes: Standing Up, Stepping Out

 One undeniable fact related to this seemingly endless Covid19 pandemic is that teachers are heroes. Exhausted, innovative, determined, and always aware of of their role as leaders, in the past year teachers have been hailed as heroes and also decried as selfish monsters. That latter shift has been attributed to the ongoing stress and struggles of families trying to survive, but it is an inexcusable stance.

Even so, teachers manage to put aside insults, attacks, and even threats to continue to serve their students and their communities. In current circumstances, that is often less visible to the general public, but it is nonetheless true. I'd l wish I could send a copy of this recent nonfiction picture book to each and every one of them, to inspire and encourage their persistence through this model of another hidden history, one that celebrates the courage of teachers.

Calkins Creek, 2020
an Imprint of Boyd Mills and Kane

THE TEACHERS MARCH: How Selma's Teachers Changed History is written by Sandra Neil Wallace and Rich Wallace, with illustrations by Charly Palmer. Every time I feel that my personal, academic, and actively informed lifelong efforts have given me a firm awareness of the  major moments and events within the Civil Rights Movement of the sixties, I discover another important resource that reminds me how little I actually know. 

Much credit is due to the co-authors of this book for their determination to uncover and provide those stories for people like me, and especially for young people who deserve the whole truth of heroic stories of our American history. This is especially true for social justice stories, hidden or ignored for far too long. 

Landmark events like the march led by Martin Luther King, Jr. across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma stand out as pivotal in achieving the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It was not achieved without blood, arrests, and  terror tactics by the Jim Crow "law and order" powers in charge. It might also have never happened if it weren't for the courageous efforts of Black teachers in Selma.

The back matter of this new book brightens the spotlight on these under-reported heroes who risked their lives to make the struggle for voting rights more visible and possible. The authors provide a timeline that reveals efforts to secure the vote in that area of Alabama (Dallas County) dating three decades earlier. It includes young John Lewis helping to lead the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), laying the path for the hero of this profile, Reverend F. D. Reese. Reese was  a science teacher in the segregated schools  who championed voting rights. He began leading marches for those rights more than a  year before the Selma bridge events. He did so no fanfare beyond local news, facing constant threats. He died in 2018 with accolades from those who knew him but with little public attention.

It was Reese who conceived of bolstering the voice and power of the marches by challenging the Black teachers of the community. He urged them to lead the marches, overcoming the fears and anxiety of the African American community through the power of their leadership and widespread respect. Their roles as leaders and their high public regard could lend success to the marches, but would also mean they had the most to lose. 

They could be fired, 

They could be jailed. 

The relative financial and educational strength they had, that they often contributed to their community, could be wiped out. 

Yes, their suits and polished shoes and unified voices would amplify the right to vote, the demand for equal treatment. But they had more to lose, including their own families who would be threatened if they marched. 

This longer-than-typical picture book text provides a thorough revelation of the dramatic challenges and choices they faced, the confrontations that ensued, and the ways in which Reese's vision for momentum came to pass. Without a doubt, the heroism called for in that time and place are beyond the comprehension of modern readers, especially those not facing social injustice. This history is revealed with storyteller skills, high stakes pacing, and compelling scenes that bring to modern attention the immeasurable dangers and determination involved in these teacher marches, and they merit a bright spotlight in history.

This is an outstanding example of powerful nonfiction for established readers, especially in context with the current (and ongoing) Black Lives Matter and social justice movements. The extensive research, resources, and supplementary notes in the back pages can be used to launch further investigations and to authenticate the details of this depiction. Sadly, the massive infection of distorted truths, outright lies, and hidden history continue to affect a tidal wave of media making its way into all of our lives. It is particularly  essential to prepare learners with reliable tools to determine what is and is not factual. Books such as this one move that process forward. 

As inspiring as this book is, the sad truth is that voter suppression continues to be a power-play within current politics and overall society, We must not risk sacrificing these generations of effort and courage by allowing forces to undermine and diminish equal rights. It's also true that the gradually improving options of books about underrepresented people, continues to lean toward serious or even somber subject matter. 

Also toward the past. 

Recent messages have bubbled up urging that for every book we share involving these serious subjects, as important as they are, we should be providing readers with current, celebratory, joyful books. Click these links for a few examples that can fulfill that balancing act:

HERE,  HERE, HERE, and HERE.

'Ohana Means Family: A Wonder of a Picture Book

 Even those of us who have never traveled to Hawaii will still be familiar with the words and concepts of POI and LU'AU.  'OHANA MEANS FAMILY is a delightful new picture book that joyfully proclaims the heritage of native Hawaiians and the role of POI and LU'AU through the familiar literary structure and cumulative text of THIS IS THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT.

NEAL PORTER BOOKS
2020

Author Ilima Loomis and illustrator Kenard Pak provide readers with a virtual visit to a Hawaiian fictional family's experience with a joyous  gathering and all that goes into making it possible.

Lyrical lines elevate a simplistic structure to follow  POI on a journey backwards from meal preparation, through every step in the process. The taro root (kalo) is traced from planting, to care, and on through the eventual growth and harvest as Hawaii's staple food, all within the embrace of loving families, an ideal tropical climate, and rich volcanic soil. 

The luminous glow of sunshine, intense greens and blues, sunlit faces and bodies, and a landscape both natural and cultivated invite readers to join 'Ohana (Family) throughout their multi-generational experiences, giving thanks, and sharing a table to celebrate their lives in a paradise of bounty and grace. 

The center spread is one of my favorites in a book filled with quiet wonder, each offering unique and suitable angles and lighting and interacting forms. This central spread features a background of tangerine sun and sprawling mountains with a midground of backlit figures of every age, working and playing in the shadowed waters of a kalo field, with its heart-shaped leaves forming a foreground base. 

"This is 'ohana, the loved ones we hold,

who give thanks for the sun, all bright and bold,

that warms the wind on which stories are told,

 that lifts the rain to the valley fold,"

... 

This small snippet of the work is a tasting portion of text, images, and story, balanced and blended to create an informative picture book. This  also reflects layers upon layers of Hawaiian heritage: musical and oral storytelling, community collaboration, family-centric celebrations, appreciation of nature and its bounty, welcoming of others, patience, and peace. The concepts and themes developed in this picture book are especially suited to this structural choice because there is a tune/chant associated with the centuries-old "This Is The House" text, making the lovely lines of this work singable. 

The author note in back matter  describes the Lu'au and Kalo and Poi traditional practices using a wide array of Hawaiian vocabulary, followed by a brief note from the author and a glossary of those actual words. This lifts the appeal from a song-like circle story to a brilliant addition to cultural studies, geography, and agricultural studies. Once again, a seemingly simple picture books proves itself worthy of an expansive audience.

VETERANS' DAY, 2020

Considering the many ways 2020 has been mind-boggling, numbing, and disorienting, it makes a huge difference to anchor our lives in some of the steadiest and most validating events and practices. That is especially true for children, but also to anyone (ALL OF US?) who feel battered and bruised by relentless global changes. Recognizing the importance of VETERANS' DAY can be a balm for the spirit.

Here are just a few picture books, fiction and nonfiction, that provide sensitive and worthy stories about varied veteran experiences.

TUESDAY TUCKS ME IN is co-authored by Luis Carlos Montalván and Bret Witter, with photographs by Dan Dion. Service dog Tuesday "narrates" a day-in-the-life portrait of serving Luis Carlos Montalván. Tuesday's voice charms and entertains while impressing upon readers the very serious work of a military service dog. Photos take us right into the time and place of each detail, revealing the depth and trust of their relationship. When the book closes our hearts stay with them both.

HERO MOM is written by Melinda Hardin and illustrated by Bryan Langdo. This is a particularly accessible book for young readers/groups, because each page includes only one sentence, with the illustrations providing extensive content about various military careers to explore and appreciate. Individuals included, both children and the female service personnel, represent diverse identities and contemporary roles. The children celebrate their moms' service by labeling them "super-heroes".

Click HERE to read a wonderful interview with the author about this title, and its companion book, HERO DAD.

If you are out and about today, even in Covid times, you might be handed a little red paper poppy. Most people have only the slightest hint of what that means beyond a passing sense that the poppy is connected with VETERANS DAY. THE POPPY LADY: Moina Belle Michael and Her Tribute to Veterans is written by Barbara E. Walsh with gorgeous illustrations are created by Layne Johnson. 

This is a true biography, involving research by the author and illustrator from primary sources, archival documents, and interviews with Moina Belle Michael's descendants. This intrepid teacher began during World War I to establish a symbol of respect, memory, and support for soldiers who offered their lives to protect freedom in our country and around the world.

Our US Veterans Administration, "the VA", has a website with many links to ways in which our government is recognizing the service of our veterans. (Click HERE.) As always, here's my reminder that specific days of remembrance are important, but can also be dismissive if they are ignored for the remaining days of the year. 

Good Hair? Bad Hair? How About MAGIC HAIR?

 I'll include some "anchors in time" at the end of this post, but I can't wait a moment longer to celebrate this book!

PAGE STREET KIDS, 2020

If this cover doesn't knock your socks off, I don't know what will.

Before discussing it, I need to share a few things about me. I became a feminist in kindergarten, in mid-century, midwest America. I entered kindergarten feeling eager and excited, because my older siblings were already in school, I entered knowing how to read and write and count, and I was PUMPED! 

What I found were endlessly annoying half-days of boredom. 

Boredom, because we took naps (NO!), had a few structured lessons that were overly simple, a teacher whose read-aloud style was dull (compared to my parents!), milk that was lukewarm, and most of our time spent in activity centers or on the playground. 

Annoying because of those activity centers and playground: 

"GIRLS" corner had kid-sized domestic items and clothing, including "girl" roles like nurse or teacher, several aprons, and a raggedy tutu. 

"BOYS" corner had vehicles, building stuff, career clothing of every sort (police, doctor, fireman, pilot, and, sorry to say, cowboy and "Indian" gear), "pretend" weapons, and THE ART EASEL! 

PLAYGROUND was similarly designated by rules about gender-separated separate categories. Boys used the climbing and ball sports equipment, girls could swing or play hopscotch.

I felt it was necessary to write all of that first, because after that I never looked back. That was ahead of the curve for feminist activism, but since kindergarten i've been devoted to the then-popular ANNIE GET YOUR GUN song- "ANYTHING YOU CAN DO I CAN DO BETTER", aimed at male audiences. Yay, Debbie Reynolds!

Which brings me back to the picture book above.  It is ALL ABOUT ATTITUDE! I'm a white person with dishwater blonde hair that has been of little consequence in my life, until I reached an age in which it is thinning to a point of absurdity. The only time I had to deal with hair-out-of-control was for several miserable weeks following a home perm (in first grade) that was so over-timed that it probably should have rendered me bald. Instead, I took what little comfort I could from the fact that my older sister had the same results and she was at a much more vulnerable age- tween. 

What I lacked about my massive head of curls was ATTITUDE. 

Look at the face of the girl on the cover. MY HAIR IS MAGIC is all about owning who you are and where you stand in the world, in your own identity and in relation to others. She cares not a bit about any designation of which corner you belong in- based on hair type, body/size, skin color, features, gender identity, or any other "othering".

The last line of the limited and lyrical text is "My HAIR is ME!"  

All of the lovely lines leading to that proclamation indicate the same thing, but in ways are launched with an expansive and specific view of this girl-in-the-world. Each spread offers a few lines in rhyme or near rhyme that present interactions with people in her world who for some reason feel empowered to ask questions, express opinions, and imply judgments about the speaker and her choices. Author M. L. Marroquin captures the confidence and resilience of this girl perfectly, while illustrator Tonya Engel celebrates those convictions with empowering and undeniable audacity.

This first-person voiced character launches her exciting and enthusiastic ownership statements by repeating the things she hears: (Why is your hair so big? Can I touch it? Is it rough? Don't you get hot under there? How do you comb it? Why is it so...?) The best part of this, to me, is that those questions come from her friends, neighbors, and even strangers, most of whom are not White. The author voices what should readily be seen as very inappropriate questions from others by commenting more specifically on the style choice of the speaker. Her hair, to them, seems notably... "twisty... complicated... wild... spirally... soft... frizzy...",among other labels, all of which reflect judgments about natural hair in any style. 

The text and illustrations on the penultimate page of text and image:

"I say,

'My hair is natural.

My hair is beautiful.

My hair is free..."

The illustrations on this double spread suggests her empowered position to shake loose form the many outside voices to proclaim her identity, her confidence, her place in the world. 

There is magic in this new picture book, in its approach to her identity and to her choices about natural hair, specific and universal. It can (and should) become an anthem for all who feel questioned, judged, challenged, or "othered" by anyone else in the world. This offers a brilliant template for mentor writing to fully claim any and all of her identity. It also provides a gorgeous array of inspiring images for artful expressions of those identities. 

I began this post with my personal experiences in recognizing the constraints I faced in kindergarten based on gender. That was my way of setting the stage for recommending this book for all ages, including teens and adults, and all ethnicities and identities. Our acceptance of others is contingent on our acceptance of ourselves. This character makes no effort to commend her style choices to others, but stands very firm and joyous in her ownership of who she is, what she chooses, and how she stands in the world. We can all learn a great deal from her, while marveling at a gorgeous and important new picture book.

Anchor in time:

This week the USA elected a new president and vice-president, who will take office in January. Watching social media clips of girls and women seeing themselves in the first (but not last) woman vice-president elected in this country was joyous. I was especially excited for those People of Color who watched TWO glass ceilings come crashing down. 

There is so much work ahead in so many spheres (Covid19, social justice, social bridge-building, restoring the economy, and  many more). Even so, in fact MORE SO, picture books like this one contain the building blocks for a better world. And they are not separated into corners labeled GIRLS or BOYS.