I'm off to the start of my 7th year as an elementary school librarian, and I'm so excited to have a basket full of books borrowed from the local public library to preview.
These three each share a message and strong female characters and I'd recommend each of them for your elementary school student & library.
I Walk With Vanessa: A Story About a Simple Act of Kindness by Kerascoet (Schwartz Wade, 2018: New York) is a wordless book that you and your school counselor will love. I picture-walked with a group of 1st graders through it and each of us understood and sympathized with Vanessa and the girl in the yellow dress whose small gesture sets off an ocean of compassion. The end of the book shares ideas even the smallest of children can understand and take action upon.
Dear Girl, byAmy Krause Rosenthal and Paris Rosenthal (Harper Collins, 2017: New York) made my heart ache a little. I miss Amy Krouse Rosenthal's sweet, loving world view and her cleverness so much! I reviewed the book on Goodreads here. Recently my fellow librarians in Denton have been making much of diverse characters and while it's absolutely true that every deserves representation with the very best books, I'm still frankly a little disappointed that this title only addresses girls with its message of the uniqueness of each child.
I Am Enough by Grace Byers (Balzer & Brey, 2018) Beautiful illustrations and simple ideas which will hopefully connect to young readers. Again, this is a book completely about girls: there are no pictures or references to boys.
It's a hard political line to draw in 2018, where we strive for equality but know in our hearts none of us is truly without prejudice. That's why although I enjoyed each of these books very much, part of my conscience says I'm not sure limiting your audience in such a blatant way during a time of already-divided society is in the best interest of the young people who could potentially benefit from the books. Read each for yourself and enjoy them, then decide.
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