The word "parent" is not just a noun. It's also a verb.
The text in the book is simple, but drives home strongly several lessons: that everyone you meet faces their own struggles, that you’ll find friends in the most unlikely of places, that challenges met together are far more surmountable than if met alone, and that having a posse is just about one of the important things in life.
The words are few, but impactful, following a heart string, reminding us that we are all connected to one another across all time and distance across the globe.
This book follows an inquisitive, precocious little Black boy as he battles boredom and a rainy day with his imaginative pretend play. It starts, of course, with a cardboard box, and rolls on from there – dishrags, socks, goggles, swimming trunks – nothing is spared on this little boy’s quest to launch his rocket ship, all through the day right into B-E-D!
While the soft and lyrical writing in this book is sparse, the illustrations really fill out the details. Our protagonist gets glimpses of her neighbors through lit windows. Vignettes of life that are otherwise hidden.
This story was nostalgic and sweet. Growing up in Kenya going to everyone’s houses when they were celebrating a holiday, not of your faith, was a particularly fun thing! I remember celebrating Eid, Vaisakhi, and Christmas, with our Muslim, Sikh, and Christian friends, and in turn, having them celebrate Diwali and various other holidays with us. It was a great reminder that for centuries Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, etc. have lived as neighbors in harmony.
In 2021, to talk about a Caucasian couple living in South Africa (the name of the country doesn’t even make it into the book), without any nod to how these folks came to be there (colonialism) is in itself quite a misstep.
This charming book follows Arno as he and his multi-hued group of siblings/cousins/friends (it is not clear), search high and low for Arno’s lost toy horse.
The book is delightfully quaint, a beautiful story about being brave, showing kindness, the joys of friendship, and the idea that if you are truly kind, you need not buy friendship.
Meandering through crowded, narrow lanes our dark-skinned protagonist narrates the scents and sounds of the market as she contemplates what to get for her mother- the swish of marigold garlands, the scent of jasmine to perfume her mother’s braid, the rickshaw rushing by.