KID VOICES: Amplify, Support, Celebrate, RIGHT NOW!

Few would argue that kids have voices, opinions, personal interests, and attitudes. This is true physically (walk past any playground or swimming pool for proof) and figuratively (recall times when their voices are NOT in agreement with yours!). In the case of this upcoming (September 7, 2022) picture book, the voices speaking up refer to specific contemporary individual youths as well as addressing any young person who encounters the text. In fact, in the closing pages the author charges/challenges adults in the lives of those young folks to actively support their efforts and encourage their drive to improve the world, not settling for our "hopes" for their future but helping to improve it now.

CLARION BOOKS, 2022

RIGHT NOW! Real Kids Speaking Up For Change is written by Miranda Paul and illustrated by Bea Jackson. The cover is wrapped with images of the named examples whose brief profiles demonstrate the power of a committed young voice with following actions, but every single page reveals who the YOU of direct address text might be: diverse in age, ethnicity, ability, issue, and pursuit. 

The common denominators for the various images are their smiles, their determined expressions, and their unity in support of each other. More than sixteen individual examples are shared, with each example providing a brief background story, a direct quotation (cited in back matter), and a continuity of the general text which frames the individual as a potential "you", including the circumstances that led to the individual activism on behalf of a wider community. Those commitments ranged from medical discoveries to making life-needs available to the hungry and unhoused, to global causes like immigration, rights of girls and women, treatment of those with disabilities/differences, and basic kindness.

Backmatter includes a brief author note (with that challenge to adults), tagged ways-to-speak-up for eleven of the issues spotlighted within the profiles, a simple glossary, and bibliography with quotation sources. Paul has a polished talent for presenting nonfiction content in accessible, appealing ways that "speak" naturally to young readers without patronizing or oversimplifying. That is enhanced by the gifted art of illustrator Jackson. The colorful, recognizable images of these diverse, specific examples are couched in identifiable situations and settings, with a comfortable realism but a slight/inspiring glow to their demeanors. These, and the general characters throughout, could be found in any school anywhere, and they are. It matters that we (adults) recognize that in them, and help young people recognize in themselves the voices and interests that can change the world. A book like this is a ticket to begin that journey.

Carolrhoda Books
August, 2022

 

Two other new picture books encourage similar attitudes in young people. Both are charming and reinforce the call to action of RIGHT NOW, although they feel best suited to underscore or reinforce that text. BE A BRIDGE is written by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, with illustrations by Nabila Adani. It is written in rhymed lines with a direct address to younger readers, occasionally tending a bit didactic, but with wonderfully charming and colorful illustrations of diverse kids. Framed in a school setting, each reappears in various scenes, sometimes choosing positive actions and sometimes benefitting from the advice to calm down or deal with life in kind ways. 

BEAMING BOOKS
2022

Finally, SARAH RISING deserves a close look and sharing. In this case the tentative young voice is that of Sarah, who loves nature and her little "pets", a living collection that we later learn are lovingly cared for. observed,  and then released back into nature. Sarah, too, is lovingly cared for and will one day be released into her own future, but for now she is learning first hand from her dad that every voice should be raised to speak out for those being treated unjustly. The situation of a protest has a somber, worrisome tone, but Sarah's impulse to save an injured monarch butterfly outweighs her fear of the "BIG" people surrounding her. Her kindness separates her from her father, but results in care and kindness from other BIG people who lift her up to locate her dad inn the crowd. The sense of Sarah rising to a need, rising above her fear, naming her emotions, and being raised to see herself as able and with agency are all worth considering and discussing openly. Author Ty Chapman achieves an authentic young girl's first person voice and perspective, while illustrator DeAnn Wiley achieves an appealing balance of dark-skinned characters within joyful, safe, and happy scenes/relationships as well portraying widely diverse individuals involved in the protests and police groups, in which the overall tone and perspectives convey the shifting moods within the story arc. The recovered monarch being freed at the end offers a just-right dose of introductory lessons on symbolism. 

Overall, this threesome deserves a place on the list of "back to school" picture books across many age levels.

Dictionary for a Better World: Letter by Letter

Covid update:
"Openings" from Safer-at-Home policies have varied, based on communities, states, and lawsuit results. It's been a solid two weeks since Memorial Day. Since then, openings are ubiquitous, including a wide range of cautionary recommendations and an even wider range of non-compliance with those guides. In recent days I've heard that numbers of Covid-19 are rising-- in positive test results, in hospitalizations, and in deaths. 
I have no words for the frustration and fear I feel at the prospect of SO MANY people deciding that "it's over", that they "need" to get out into crowds, ignoring simple cautions when they do.
The stock market had been ignoring economic and science cautions, leading to record highs this week. Until yesterday, a day of reckoning and drastic losses after forecasts of slow, lengthy economic recovery were announced by top officials. Just imagine the reaction when (not if) Covid-19 returns with a vengeance: with a change in seasons, with unhealthy choices, and with the backlash following false assumptions that it is gone.

BLACK LIVES MATTER protests update:
Two weeks ago George Floyd's murder under the knee of a uniformed police officer was recorded by a bystander. Since then a nationwide protest response has expanded globally, with powerful consequences still unfolding. In those two weeks I've had many important conversations. I hope to have many more. I've viewed, listened to, and learned from videos and people whose voices have not been heard in the past, at least not outside a powerless echo chamber. In recent days, I've been reading predictions about a potential "White Backlash" coming. I will continue speaking up about the need to open doors, windows, minds, and stories more widely in order to counter any efforts to slow the momentum of this movement.

Anyone reading this as it posts live will wonder why I would bother adding a note about something(s) so self-evident. I've been writing these posts for nearly a decade now. I'm including these introductory comments for myself or others who could return to posts in the future, reading with my perspective in the moment in this time in history. I find that these current global and local forces affect my choices and reflections about which picture books to feature here. My notes are also a way to preface my book thoughts that follow.

Carolrhoda Books

DICTIONARY FOR A BETTER WORLD: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z is the second writing collaboration between poets  Irene Latham and Charles Waters. Illustrations are by Mehrdokht Amini.  
These two authors first opened a poetic dialogue in CAN I TOUCH YOUR HAIR? Poems of Race and Friendship (2018). There, they used alternating poems in the voices of a young white girl and a young black boy, an exploration beginning with curiosity and cluelessness, but growing into an accepting and affectionate friendship. 
DICTIONARY FOR A BETTER WORLD features  poems from alternating poets (with related quotations from others and memoir-like reflections by the author for that particular poem/theme). Each poem adds a note about its form/structure, and each full spread provides an inviting challenge to "TRY IT", suggesting simple acts or reflections that readers might try for themselves.


That may sound like a heavy burden for one book, but this "dictionary" is uplifting. The book design elevates its appeal with the gorgeous artwork and visual interpretation on each spread. A Table of Contents offers the scaffolding on which this wonder is built. Poems are listed alphabetically with several letters launching more than one theme and spread, including such timeless topics as ALLY, DREAM, GRATITUDE, SHERO, and WONDER, among a total of forty-eight explorations. Back matter includes authors' notes, references for quotations, recommended books, poetry-writing resources and forms, and acknowledgements listed as gratitudes. 

I read this two different ways. First, I dove in from cover to cover, moving through more quickly than I would recommend. I tend to devour favored foods (think pizza, fresh melon, etc.) so fast that, after the last bite, I'm feeling overstuffed. It's a pattern I work to curb, but not always successfully. In this case, I was eager to get a sense of the WHOLE, knowing I'd return to taste it another way after I reached the last page. 
I have no regrets about the approach, because I found it to be delicious, even if it was a lot to digest in one sitting. The choices of topics/themes for each letter are mindfully sequenced, each building on the body of thoughts that came before. In their earlier work the poems collectively revealed a story of friendship. A dictionary is not intended to tell a story, and yet within its pages are all the stories one could choose to tell. This dictionary offers that same wealth of emotional and social vocabulary to write and revise our own stories.
Taken individually or as a whole, this book offers timeless and universal inspiration, but is particularly suited to the current times. Here's an example, from Charles:

EMPATHY     (Acrostic Poem)

Ears open

Mouth closed

Paying

Attention

To the other person

Helping them know

Yes, they matter.

QUOTATION: 

"Even though I didn't think I'd like empathy it kind of creeps up on you and makes you feel all warm and glowy inside. I don't think I want to go back to a life without empathy."

Kathryn Erskine, MOCKINGBIRD

Charles says...

(He shares details of a painful incident in high school in which he was hurt by a teacher's comments, with a reflection on the way a trusted teacher helped him through it.)

TRY IT!

(Simple suggestion about ways to handle others who gossip, about you or someone else.)

Before you get worried that the topics are all introspective and intense, the options include:
LAUGHTER, ZEST, EXERCISE, HOPE, and YES. The range is  impressive and wide-ranging enough to serve as conveniently as any dictionary, a book to keep on hand to weave poetry, inspiration, and fun into every day life. The poetry forms and back matter tips make this mentor text of the best kind, providing excellence in example and clarity in directions.

I hope you'll take a look at this book. it is much longer than a typical picture book, but one that provides material to spark conversations, encourage exploration of poetry  reading and writing, and provide a wealth of comfort and joy. 
Sounds pretty good about now, right?

More Alike Than Different: Poems of Friendship

April is Poetry Month. I celebrated the launch of the 2018 Poetry Season with a post about H IS FOR HAIKU, HERE, which was a collaboration of sorts between mother (author) and daughter (advocate). 

It's fitting to follow that with a co-authored, co-illustrated collection of poems that I first read while evaluating books for the CYBILS awards for poetry. CAN I TOUCH YOUR HAIR? POEMS OF RACE, MISTAKES, AND FRIENDSHIP was a hot contender, in my opinion. Authors Irene Latham and Charles Waters met "virtually" through their mutual love of poetry. Editor Carol Hinz of Carolrhoda Books proposed their collaboration on this project and it was an inspired choice. Illustrators Sean Qualls and Selina Alko completed this multi-racial, honest, and open exploration of the childhood perceptions, misconceptions and relationships.

I expected to enjoy this, but it far exceeded those expectations. The simplicity and directness from each of the two voices allowed me to slide right into their respective identities, into their school and home relationships, into the gradual shifts of their interactions from anxious concern to naturally developing mutual respect and friendship. 
The dialogic poems, simple but helpful illustrations, and discreet details from the two lives and points of view offer readers of any age an open door to reflect on privilege and unrecognized bias. 
The free verse poems and topics developed provide effective mentor text and present subtle character development from which young writers can learn to "show, don't tell" in their own writing.

Read the Kirkus starred review, HERE, to see why this is a book for today, for Poetry Month, for EVERY month, and for years to come.