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alinaborger 's review for:
Jabari Jumps
by Gaia Cornwall
Jubari Jumps is the story of a young boy who decides to jump off the high dive, but has to work up the bravery to do so. With his dad's encouragement, Jubari jumps.
The book has a nearly perfect traditional plot structure, tells a story many U.S. children will connect to, and is beautifully, classically illustrated. The advice Jubari's dad offers him uses the kind of magical language that belongs in literary advice. This book is essentially the platonic form of the picture book.
What makes the book even more noteworthy, however, are Cornwall's decisions to make her protagonist an African American boy living in a city and to make the older, wiser character Jubari's dad. As a result, it occupies a sweet spot between melting pot fiction and culturally conscious fiction.
The takeaway for writers here is that doing the basics super effectively is a winning strategy.
NB: My own children dismissed the book as completely unrealistic because Jubari wears goggles on the diving board, which is not allowed in any of the public pools they've ever been to.
NB: I think this would be a great story to teach "words of the wiser," a secondary level reading strategy.
The book has a nearly perfect traditional plot structure, tells a story many U.S. children will connect to, and is beautifully, classically illustrated. The advice Jubari's dad offers him uses the kind of magical language that belongs in literary advice. This book is essentially the platonic form of the picture book.
What makes the book even more noteworthy, however, are Cornwall's decisions to make her protagonist an African American boy living in a city and to make the older, wiser character Jubari's dad. As a result, it occupies a sweet spot between melting pot fiction and culturally conscious fiction.
The takeaway for writers here is that doing the basics super effectively is a winning strategy.
NB: My own children dismissed the book as completely unrealistic because Jubari wears goggles on the diving board, which is not allowed in any of the public pools they've ever been to.
NB: I think this would be a great story to teach "words of the wiser," a secondary level reading strategy.