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trevoryan's review
5.0
A rare perfect book. Sure it's a tiny board book, but it's also extremely well-written, beautifully illustrated , and woke af!
geekwayne's review
2.0
'An ABC of Equality' by Chana Ginelle Ewing with illustrations by Paulina Morgan is a board book with a definite agenda. If you agree with that agenda, you will love this book. If you don't, you won't. My review is asking if it works as a board book for toddlers.
Teaching equality is a noble aim, and I understand what the author is attempting. Unfortunately, I think it conceptually fails on a few levels. One function of an ABC book is to teach the very young the letters we use to form words. Usually these are accompanied by illustrations that help serve as mnemonic devices to remember, like an apple or a zebra. Here the illustrations are for concepts like belief or ability. While I like the illustrations, they don't convey anything memorable for little readers.
Secondly, each entry is accompanied by text to explain things, and for the very young, I think these are a bit wordy and don't actually explain things well enough. I'm not sure how a three year old would get the concept of transgender or xenophobia. Books can inform conversations, but concepts like these are not as easy.
I like the concept and the colorful illustrations. I just don't think it works as a book for the very young.
I received a review copy of this ebook from Quarto Publishing Group - Frances Lincoln Childrens, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.
Teaching equality is a noble aim, and I understand what the author is attempting. Unfortunately, I think it conceptually fails on a few levels. One function of an ABC book is to teach the very young the letters we use to form words. Usually these are accompanied by illustrations that help serve as mnemonic devices to remember, like an apple or a zebra. Here the illustrations are for concepts like belief or ability. While I like the illustrations, they don't convey anything memorable for little readers.
Secondly, each entry is accompanied by text to explain things, and for the very young, I think these are a bit wordy and don't actually explain things well enough. I'm not sure how a three year old would get the concept of transgender or xenophobia. Books can inform conversations, but concepts like these are not as easy.
I like the concept and the colorful illustrations. I just don't think it works as a book for the very young.
I received a review copy of this ebook from Quarto Publishing Group - Frances Lincoln Childrens, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.
theshaggyshepherd's review
5.0
An ABC of Equality by Chana Ginelle Ewing is the kind of book I am excited to add to my shelf to share with children. This book has a lot of words that will help you explain to your young children about social justice and how to be supportive of many different kinds of people. The illustrations that go with each letter are cute and the descriptions are easy to understand for the age level.
annieb123's review against another edition
4.0
Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
An ABC of Equality is a colorfully illustrated and appealing ABC picture book for kids - babies to older children. Due out 1st Sept 2020 from Quarto on their Frances Lincoln imprint, it'll be 56 pages and will be available in boardbook format.
I really like the concepts and the aim of this little book. The idea of equality, dignity, self expression, worthiness, and beauty for all people no matter who they are is wonderful and worthy and needs to be taught to everyone, the younger the better. The problem is that tying these advanced and sometimes difficult concepts to an ABC book seemed like an odd combination to me.
At any rate, the pictures will appeal to babies and toddlers and the pictures and text will allow adults to at least begin to have simple conversations with their children and youngsters about identity, ethnicity, xenophobia, physical abilities and how to celebrate our differences and not allow them to divide us.
This is an exuberant book and I really think it's important to start to teach our children respect and kindness for everyone. There are -some- parts of the book which struck me as oddly formulated: LGBTQIA for example says "It's okay to be whoever you want to be". Apart from the obvious grammatical ding (whomever), I was somewhat uncomfortable with the idea that identity and lifestyle are choices. Generally though, the detractions are similarly minor and fleeting.
I liked the book and I think it will be a useful tool for introducing important concepts to youngsters.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
An ABC of Equality is a colorfully illustrated and appealing ABC picture book for kids - babies to older children. Due out 1st Sept 2020 from Quarto on their Frances Lincoln imprint, it'll be 56 pages and will be available in boardbook format.
I really like the concepts and the aim of this little book. The idea of equality, dignity, self expression, worthiness, and beauty for all people no matter who they are is wonderful and worthy and needs to be taught to everyone, the younger the better. The problem is that tying these advanced and sometimes difficult concepts to an ABC book seemed like an odd combination to me.
At any rate, the pictures will appeal to babies and toddlers and the pictures and text will allow adults to at least begin to have simple conversations with their children and youngsters about identity, ethnicity, xenophobia, physical abilities and how to celebrate our differences and not allow them to divide us.
This is an exuberant book and I really think it's important to start to teach our children respect and kindness for everyone. There are -some- parts of the book which struck me as oddly formulated: LGBTQIA for example says "It's okay to be whoever you want to be". Apart from the obvious grammatical ding (whomever), I was somewhat uncomfortable with the idea that identity and lifestyle are choices. Generally though, the detractions are similarly minor and fleeting.
I liked the book and I think it will be a useful tool for introducing important concepts to youngsters.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
tootall77hc's review against another edition
4.0
An ABC of Equality is such a wonderful and necessary book for young children. This book teaches kids much of what they need to learn about equality. I know that much of the language in this book will be over the heads of the children who read it but I believe it is good to challenge them. The illustrations are absolutely adorable and the colors are very engaging! The one thing that I wish could be changed is the layout of the pages. It feels a bit awkard to have the letter and word after the definition of said word. All in all, An ABC of Equality is an important book for young and older children to read and I highly recommend it!
auudrey's review
challenging
hopeful
informative
fast-paced
3.0
Overall the book does a good job at breaking down complex concepts in ways a young child could comprehend. I appreciate the values it’s intended to teach children. However, the letters H, N, O and R lack nuance. While undoubtedly unintentional, the explanation for the letter H was kinda ableist. I think they were simplifying things that distinguish Homo sapiens from other primates, but saying, for example, that being able to stand is part of what makes when human, you’re in advertently, teaching children, that people who can’t stand aren’t human (or less than) human. The description for R - Race is inaccurate. The first attempt of defining it as a way to describe where people’s families are from is incorrect.
y_r_p's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
A beautiful and informative book that is also educational.