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4.28 AVERAGE
4.28 AVERAGE
Cilla is a fun, delightful, spunky 1/2 Chinese 1/2 Caucasian girl who is an going to be a famous author. This book deals with the fact that she will be welcoming a baby sister into her life. I love her quirky honesty. A fun book for 3rd and up.
Cute and wholesome. Cilla came across a bit emotionally babyish for eight, but also sometimes surprisingly sardonic for eight? I’ll still read the second and I’m glad to have more Asian American characters to share.
I don’t like children… but this kid can have my crayons..
3.5 stars. This was a cute book from a precocious little girl who dreams of being an author. As a biracial and much indulged only child, Cilla is full of pep and imagination, but she also has to contend with a new baby on the way and several instances of casual racism throughout the book. I found the perspective interesting, but the story felt a little slow and disjointed at times.
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
I loved Cilla's enthusiasm and perspective on the world. Kids will definitely relate to this story of cultural identity, family, and friendship.
I adored this book, but I think my kids loved it even more. What a memorable story! So many kids will be able to relate with Cilla. My own daughter wants to be an “author extraordinaire” now. She has a sign in her room declaring this, as well as a writing desk. We love Cilla, and can’t wait for book 2!
I had a student who just loved the Cilla Lee-Jenkins books, and so I took the first one home to see what the fuss was about. I can see why she loved these books. Just the right combination of serious and funny, with an authentic voice and enough illustrations to help the story along.
Me on the Inside: Art is dead.
Me on the Outside: [in a very small, quiet voice] Okay. She got a cookie, and then because she was very full and tired, she took a nap.
Can't wait for my niblings to be old enough to start longer books because this will be one of the first I'll shove into their hands.
One of the Read Harder challenges this year is to read "A children’s or middle grade book (not YA) that has won a diversity award since 2009" -- not typically something I'd read so I'm grateful for being nudged outside my usual lanes.
Tan's novel is charming, amusing, sobering, and fun. Our heroine, Cilla, wants very much to be a bestselling author and she's living her best life to do so. But life conspires to challenge her -- there's a new sibling on the way, and her classmates and teacher don't quite have the imaginative vision she has. She faces the kinds of challenges adults find bemusing, but are deadly serious for kids, and Tan articulates those feelings with an honest tenderness that made them real and not silly. There's no minimizing, either, of the reality Cilla faces as a biracial child, and that was really the breathtaking thing for me.
Every since becoming a mother, I've been aware of the ways in my kneejerk response is to try to hide, minimize, or disguise racism, especially when it comes to my kid. I'm not unique in that; I'd say it's close to a crisis the way white parents teach colorblindness to their kids, thus perpetuating the more dangerous and insidious aspects of racism.
More than once, Tan has Cilla note racism in her own life, and it was revealing to me that I was shocked each time. Then it drove home for me how privileged I am and how important it is to note and discuss this reality rather than ignore it. It has also made me appreciate that there's kid fic out there for children like Cilla with characters that experience what they experience, giving them a chance to be centered rather than an outlier.
Initial Thoughts
Wicked charming read. Picked this up only because of Read Harder and glad to have a new author to keep in mind for Unabridged Kid when he can start reading.
Cilla wants to be a best-selling author (same) but her observations are tender, funny, and bittersweet. The thread of unconscious racism she experiences is impossible to ignore, and it was eye-opening for me to sit with as I read, knowing that middle grade readers of color would be able to empathize and understand Cilla's confusion and pain.
Me on the Outside: [in a very small, quiet voice] Okay. She got a cookie, and then because she was very full and tired, she took a nap.
Can't wait for my niblings to be old enough to start longer books because this will be one of the first I'll shove into their hands.
One of the Read Harder challenges this year is to read "A children’s or middle grade book (not YA) that has won a diversity award since 2009" -- not typically something I'd read so I'm grateful for being nudged outside my usual lanes.
Tan's novel is charming, amusing, sobering, and fun. Our heroine, Cilla, wants very much to be a bestselling author and she's living her best life to do so. But life conspires to challenge her -- there's a new sibling on the way, and her classmates and teacher don't quite have the imaginative vision she has. She faces the kinds of challenges adults find bemusing, but are deadly serious for kids, and Tan articulates those feelings with an honest tenderness that made them real and not silly. There's no minimizing, either, of the reality Cilla faces as a biracial child, and that was really the breathtaking thing for me.
Every since becoming a mother, I've been aware of the ways in my kneejerk response is to try to hide, minimize, or disguise racism, especially when it comes to my kid. I'm not unique in that; I'd say it's close to a crisis the way white parents teach colorblindness to their kids, thus perpetuating the more dangerous and insidious aspects of racism.
More than once, Tan has Cilla note racism in her own life, and it was revealing to me that I was shocked each time. Then it drove home for me how privileged I am and how important it is to note and discuss this reality rather than ignore it. It has also made me appreciate that there's kid fic out there for children like Cilla with characters that experience what they experience, giving them a chance to be centered rather than an outlier.
Initial Thoughts
Wicked charming read. Picked this up only because of Read Harder and glad to have a new author to keep in mind for Unabridged Kid when he can start reading.
Cilla wants to be a best-selling author (same) but her observations are tender, funny, and bittersweet. The thread of unconscious racism she experiences is impossible to ignore, and it was eye-opening for me to sit with as I read, knowing that middle grade readers of color would be able to empathize and understand Cilla's confusion and pain.