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A review by bickie
This is a Story by John Schu
Two children and their adult go to a library in NYC where they find a variety of people with different skin colors (and one wearing a kippah) engrossed in reading and a light-skinned librarian who helps them find some good books. A few people use glasses; there are no visible mobility aids.
Unfortunately, this book is not a story, and it does not have a logical progression. It starts out showing word, word on a page, page in a book, book waiting on a shelf in a library. Then, we pivot to "Look at the world. The world is full of humans." [accompanied by a cityscape showing people in a park, some flying kites; the next spread shows our main trio and others people walking by a library] "Sometimes humans need help..." [accompanied by a child with a large sea horse kite in the library facing a light-skinned librarian carrying a large stack of books with a somewhat surprised look on their face] "connecting." [librarian squats down and offers a book entitled Sea Horse to the child with a sea horse kite] "This is a book. This is a reader." [accompanied by the character on their stomach reading the Sea Horse book looking excited] "These are some more readers with minds full of questions... [accompanied by readers in various positions reading various books]
We definitely need some updated picture books introducing children to the library. This one is OK, but I would choose Morales' Dreamers as a read aloud over this one. It might be useful for working with older students as a prompt for how they have been affected by a specific book (or several).
Unfortunately, this book is not a story, and it does not have a logical progression. It starts out showing word, word on a page, page in a book, book waiting on a shelf in a library. Then, we pivot to "Look at the world. The world is full of humans." [accompanied by a cityscape showing people in a park, some flying kites; the next spread shows our main trio and others people walking by a library] "Sometimes humans need help..." [accompanied by a child with a large sea horse kite in the library facing a light-skinned librarian carrying a large stack of books with a somewhat surprised look on their face] "connecting." [librarian squats down and offers a book entitled Sea Horse to the child with a sea horse kite] "This is a book. This is a reader." [accompanied by the character on their stomach reading the Sea Horse book looking excited] "These are some more readers with minds full of questions... [accompanied by readers in various positions reading various books]
We definitely need some updated picture books introducing children to the library. This one is OK, but I would choose Morales' Dreamers as a read aloud over this one. It might be useful for working with older students as a prompt for how they have been affected by a specific book (or several).