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panda_incognito's review
3.0
2.5 stars, rounded up.
This book is MUCH better than Antiracist Baby. The illustrations are significantly more attractive, with better colors and well-proportioned people, and the text sounds less like it's wrangled out of textbooks. This book gives real-world examples of struggle and suffering, engaging readers' emotions, instead of making theoretical, academic claims. The book also offers a nice message of hope, and of dreaming of change.
However, this is still not a children's book. Kendi covers a plentiful array of social issues here, giving a surface-level treatment of each, and he doesn't explain any of them to the child. An adult could use this book as a tool to start conversations with their child, but they will need to provide all of the explanations and insight. The book brings up archetypes and concepts that adults and older children will connect with, such as homelessness, without speaking to a picture book audience and explaining the concepts to them.
Also, the book doesn't really focus on racism. It attributes a broad range of social issues to racism, but even though racism is a relevant factor, many of these issues are broad-ranging enough and involve enough different racial and social groups that this is mainly just a book about wanting to fix all of the world's ills, not on removing racial discrimination from society. If someone is specifically looking for a picture book about ending racism, this won't even fit the bill for them.
This book is MUCH better than Antiracist Baby. The illustrations are significantly more attractive, with better colors and well-proportioned people, and the text sounds less like it's wrangled out of textbooks. This book gives real-world examples of struggle and suffering, engaging readers' emotions, instead of making theoretical, academic claims. The book also offers a nice message of hope, and of dreaming of change.
However, this is still not a children's book. Kendi covers a plentiful array of social issues here, giving a surface-level treatment of each, and he doesn't explain any of them to the child. An adult could use this book as a tool to start conversations with their child, but they will need to provide all of the explanations and insight. The book brings up archetypes and concepts that adults and older children will connect with, such as homelessness, without speaking to a picture book audience and explaining the concepts to them.
Also, the book doesn't really focus on racism. It attributes a broad range of social issues to racism, but even though racism is a relevant factor, many of these issues are broad-ranging enough and involve enough different racial and social groups that this is mainly just a book about wanting to fix all of the world's ills, not on removing racial discrimination from society. If someone is specifically looking for a picture book about ending racism, this won't even fit the bill for them.
kiralovesreading's review
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
delz's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
5.0
Beautiful with a positive, strong message, great place for parents to begin a tough conversation. This is colorful and attractive for small children.
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