Mr. Alex's Bookshelf

Confession time: I often don’t care for picture book biographies. They’re hard to do well; either their subject matter is too adult for the preschool crowd, or their treatment of their subject is too shallow for the adult reading it. It’s a tricky thing to get right, but author Alicia D. Williams and illustrator Jaqueline Alcántara have struck a near-perfect tone with Jump at the Sun, a compelling and delightful picture book about national treasure Zora Neale Hurston.

This book is a well-written, beautifully illustrated, and heartwarming story about a little girl afraid about yet another change in her very young life. How wonderfully banal. To young readers, the diversity in the book will hopefully come across as passe, almost an afterthought, to the central story that every kid who has dealt with the arrival of a new disruptive sibling can relate to.

This book is a quick introduction to the life and accomplishments of the famed singer. Written in rhyming couplets, each two page spread is headlined by a theme word, spelled out like Aretha’s most famous song R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

This is a story that touches on cultural awareness, traditions, feelings, confidence, and so many other positive aspects of growing up. It depicts a confident, self-assured little girl who is not shy about being herself. In a world where so much is about conforming to expectations, this book offers little girls as well as not so little girls, a view of what it is to be yourself and show your best self to the world around you.