She looks at the coin in his hand meaningfully so that he'll drop it into the hat of a guitar player.ĬJ asks, "How come we gotta wait for the bus in all this wet?" And his grandma reminds him that trees need water, too. She makes sure he smiles at the other people on the bus and says "Good afternoon" to them. The old woman is tough - but loving - with her grandson. The illustrations of the tattooed man are pretty impressive. Old, young, tattooed, blind, in a wheelchair, black, brown, white, different body types, etc. You meet all kinds of people in these pages. You don't get the idea that grandma is "babysitting," instead, you get the idea that she and CJ regularly spend days together. A boy and his grandmother spending time together as if this is a normal, everyday thing. A children's book with a black MC that isn't all *puts on a serious voice* "This is an important message."
This book is about a black little boy and his grandmother who live in The City. "Boy, what do we need a car for? We got a bus that breathes fire, and old Mr. Obviously this is all only my opinion, but it seems to me that the committee missed an opportunity here. It doesn't challenge readers to engage with characters or ideas in a profound or extended way. And textual complexity, maybe? While the Caldecott for Hugo Cabret was a surprise that made sense to me, this book just doesn't do what I need a Newbery book to do. I'm not prepared to go that far for this one.īut REALLY, Newbery committee? Really? The most distinguished contribution to literature for children out of all the books of 2015 (ok, subject to residency requirements, etc.)? If we want to investigate ideas of community and diversity-if we want to find beauty in our surroundings no matter the difficulties we have to overcome-certainly we can allow more attention than a picture book affords. I am a huge believer in the importance of picture books, and for the great ones I don't think there's any limit to the top of the age range. Up to eight, if you go by the publisher's marketing materials. This is a nice picture book, and it represents all of the underrepresented groups that we're all looking to see in literature for kids.
So-I should be honest and say that this review isn't really about this book as much as it is about my disappointment in the Newbery committee's decision.
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