Scan barcode
A review by carolineinthelibrary
You Don't Know Everything, Jilly P! by Alex Gino
3.0
I really liked the message and the story of You Don't Know Everything, Jilly P! but rated it three stars for some stylistic choices that I'll get into...
Jilly has a new baby sister who is born deaf. Jilly also has a friend through an online community who is deaf as well as Black. Jilly learns tough lessons throughout the book about how to be a good friend and ally to both the Deaf community and the Black folks in her life, often by making mistakes and learning from them. I liked that about the book - Jilly is young and learning, and even adults make mistakes while learning to be good allies. Jilly has supportive family members to help her learn and grow and she takes accountability for her mistakes as she begins to understand them. Gino explains at the end of the book their tie to the Deaf community and I've seen some great reviews from Deaf folks about the quality and commitment to honoring the Deaf community, so while I'm hearing and obviously don't think I'm qualified to speak to that commitment myself, I really appreciate the care that Gino put into their work and am glad to see it being praised by folks in the community.
A couple of things kept me from loving the story. There were some picky things, like repetitive things that I think were meant to tell us more about the character but just sort of got annoying to me - Jilly has a special way of making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, so she calls them JP PB&Js and throughout the book we're reminded what the acronym stands for. I think after the first time most readers would get it, but this is aimed at a young audience, so maybe that's why it's done. I also found it sort of weird how Jilly's best friend has a secret language with Jilly's dad that Jilly is left out of, but maybe that's just my daddy issues knee jerk reaction.
Bigger things that I struggled with: as someone who works with kids, I know there's a wiiiiiide, wide range of understandings out there but I felt at times like this book overexplained things to the point of feeling like it was talking down to the reader. Some of the topics covered didn't require much explanation in my opinion, but obviously everyone comes from a different place in reading and in social justice topics. Maybe I only felt this way because I’m an adult but I’m sure there are very informed kids out there who might feel turned away from Jilly’s story for the same reason. I also wanted just one or two more ways that Jilly showed her growing awareness through successes rather than mistakes. It felt like a lot of the story was Jilly failing or making mistakes in order to learn how to be a better friend, family member, and ally, but I would have loved to see a little more of Jilly learning through things she did right throughout the story rather than at the very end. I want kids to know that learning is tough and it does take making mistakes and learning from them, but everything they do to learn to be a better ally won’t be mistakes or failings.
Jilly has a new baby sister who is born deaf. Jilly also has a friend through an online community who is deaf as well as Black. Jilly learns tough lessons throughout the book about how to be a good friend and ally to both the Deaf community and the Black folks in her life, often by making mistakes and learning from them. I liked that about the book - Jilly is young and learning, and even adults make mistakes while learning to be good allies. Jilly has supportive family members to help her learn and grow and she takes accountability for her mistakes as she begins to understand them. Gino explains at the end of the book their tie to the Deaf community and I've seen some great reviews from Deaf folks about the quality and commitment to honoring the Deaf community, so while I'm hearing and obviously don't think I'm qualified to speak to that commitment myself, I really appreciate the care that Gino put into their work and am glad to see it being praised by folks in the community.
A couple of things kept me from loving the story. There were some picky things, like repetitive things that I think were meant to tell us more about the character but just sort of got annoying to me - Jilly has a special way of making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, so she calls them JP PB&Js and throughout the book we're reminded what the acronym stands for. I think after the first time most readers would get it, but this is aimed at a young audience, so maybe that's why it's done. I also found it sort of weird how Jilly's best friend has a secret language with Jilly's dad that Jilly is left out of, but maybe that's just my daddy issues knee jerk reaction.
Bigger things that I struggled with: as someone who works with kids, I know there's a wiiiiiide, wide range of understandings out there but I felt at times like this book overexplained things to the point of feeling like it was talking down to the reader. Some of the topics covered didn't require much explanation in my opinion, but obviously everyone comes from a different place in reading and in social justice topics. Maybe I only felt this way because I’m an adult but I’m sure there are very informed kids out there who might feel turned away from Jilly’s story for the same reason. I also wanted just one or two more ways that Jilly showed her growing awareness through successes rather than mistakes. It felt like a lot of the story was Jilly failing or making mistakes in order to learn how to be a better friend, family member, and ally, but I would have loved to see a little more of Jilly learning through things she did right throughout the story rather than at the very end. I want kids to know that learning is tough and it does take making mistakes and learning from them, but everything they do to learn to be a better ally won’t be mistakes or failings.