My Night in the Planetarium: A true story about a child, a play, and the art of resistance

 

by Innosanto Nagara

There aren’t a lot of picture books that portray what it’s like for a child to live under dictatorship. Innosanto Nagara, the Indonesian-born graphic artist and acclaimed author/illustrator of A Is for Activist and Counting on Community, tells his own story of facing dictatorship and oppression in My Night in the Planetarium. At the age of seven, he watched his father, a playwright, put on plays that indirectly lampooned the corrupt and violent rulers of his country in the 1970s and 1980s. Sometimes the youngster acted in the plays. Ultimately, this love gives both parents and children the strength they need to survive and thrive in the most difficult of circumstances.

Abalone Woman

 

Abalone Woman

By Teoni Spathelfer

Abalone Woman is the third book in the Little Wolf series for young readers. Here, Little Wolf has a bad dream but it reminds her to learn more about Indigenous culture and the importance of passing on knowledge to the new generation. When Little Wolf encounters injustice in her community, she turns to her family for the strength to fight back.

Local author Spathelfer has all three picturebooks at the Richmond Public Library:

Abuelita and Me

 

Abuelita and Me

By Leonarda Carranza

An empowering story of a girl and her grandmother travelling by bus across the city when racist slurs are directed at the grandmother, Abuelita. How the two decide to react to this situation gives an example of a way to maintain dignity and respond with positivity when someone is being mean. 

Chaiwala!

Chaiwala!

By Priti Birla Maheshwari, art by Ashley Barron

Chaiwala! is an energetic, attractive, multisensory picturebook about a young girl and her mom who order cups of chai at a stand while stopping for a few minutes at the Jaipur train station. There's lots of colour, movement and onomatopoeia to keep this short book flying. Cut-paper illustrations will entice the reader as they watch the chai "boil and bubble," mixing together perfectly sweet.

Brown Girl Dreaming

Brown Girl Dreaming

By Jacqueline Woodson

On the surface, Brown Girl Dreaming is the story of a girl’s journey from the South to the North and how her perceptions of race and self changed during that time. Go a bit deeper, and you may discover it to be a kind of touchstone for other children’s books about the African-American experience in North America. Brown Girl Dreaming may be the story of a girl’s journey to find her vocation and her voice but Jacqueline Woodson's novel in verse is more than a story. For it tells us more than most of our children’s nonfiction history books do.

Change Sings: A Children's Anthem

 

Change Sings: A Children's Anthem

By Amanda Gorman

“I can hear change coming
In its loudest, proudest song.
I don't fear change coming,
And so I sing along.”

Amanda Gorman's rhyming verse calls out to children on the first page alongside the image of a girl with brown skin and textured hair, sitting crossed legged with her guitar. It is suppose to represent Amanda as a child; it is suppose to represent every child. The following page is an explosion of colour and an expression of movement, as the girl walks past a dynamic mural of Martin Luther King Jr. The segments come together like a stained glass window, and Loren Long's illustrations become a rhymical beat of its own.

Gathering neighborhood kids to follow her in a musical parade, the children teach themselves that the power to change things in the world - big or small - rests within themsleves.

At 22 years of age, Amanda Gorman, a National Youth Poet Laureate, was the youngest to be invited to speak at a presidential inauguration. Gorman’s charisma while reading her compelling poem, “The Hill We Climb,” was unmistakable, as she brought into this world an iconic quote, “for there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” 

 

Unspeakable: the Tulsa Race Massacre

Unspeakable: the Tulsa Race Massacre

by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Floyd Cooper Picture book Illustrator and author Floyd Cooper passed away recently at the age of 65. He received a Coretta Scott King Award for his illustrations in The Blacker the Berry and 2 Coretta Scott King Honors. Starting out as a 3 year old writing on the side of his house, he grew up in low-income housing in Tulsa Oklahoma and went on to receive a scholarship for art. In 1984 he moved to New York City to pursue his career.

Known for his candid, bold, and dramatic illustrations, Cooper always remained positive and stated, “Giving kids a positive alternative to counteract the negative impact of what is conveyed in today’s media is a huge opportunity.” His picturebook collection would make a fine library for any child with subjects ranging from a normal beach trip to a special day for a ring bearer, to a more heart wrenching topic such as the civil rights movement. His hope was for children to learn about the world at large, their place in it, and how they connect with it.

When Unspeakable came out this year there was thought that this could finally be Cooper's year to win a Caldecott, the award issued to an illustrator for the "most distinguished American picture book for children" I wonder, will Floyd Cooper be the first to be awarded a Caldecott Award posthumously?

Richmond Public Library has a selection of Cooper’s work, including his 2021 Unspeakable: the Tulsa Race Massacre in a streaming video read along format. Please make a purchase suggestion if you are interested in works we don’t presently carry. UPDATE: Unspeakable won a 2022 Caldecott Honor.

Learn to pronounce

Wild Berries

By Julie Flett

Author Illustrator Julie Flett delivers a picture book set in both English and Cree. There are actually two editions: a bilingual English-Cree dialect version and one in a Cree dialect. In the English-Cree version, one Cree vocabulary word is highlighted on each page. A pronunciation guide follows at the end of the story.

Clarence and his grandmother have always gone blueberry picking together. Here they are, on a typical trip to the woods, picking both sweet and sour blueberries together and meeting the woodland animals. It is a very simple and content tale.

Browns, blacks and yellow-greens with a strong pop of salient red make up Flett’s stylistic images. The warm, muted colours and tones as well as the simplicity lend a peaceful and calming essence to the book. Her illustrations are done in collage and are reminiscent of printmaking.

Awards: First Nation Communities READ (2014-2015)

Layla's Happiness

By Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, illustrations by Ashleigh Corrin

What does happiness mean to you? There are many ways to define it. Here is a story about a girl named Layla and all the things that make her happy: dark purple plums, the full moon, and night’s darkness. She has an overflowing love for her family, her friends, her neighbourhood, and nature. You will soak up Layla's healthy sense of self and positive energy she exudes when seeking out the good in life.

Historically children of colour have mostly been portrayed in certain types of books -- books showing the hardships of life for a person of colour. Of course these stories are incredibly important for society to learn from the past, however when a child rarely sees themselves depicted as carefree, confident and comfortable in their own skin, this impacts their self-worth. 

Equally as creative as the poetic text, the bold, textured illustrations beautifully capture Layla's spirit. This story of flourishing within family and community is also shown through the pictures which are bubbly, loud and proud. The warm, energized colours run right off the page as if they could not be contained -- much like Layla’s vivaciousness. 

Layla’s Happiness is the first book for both the author and illustrator, winning the 2020 Ezra Jack Keats Award for illustration and the 2020 Ezra Jack Keats Honor for writing. Ages 4-8.

Carmela Full of Wishes

Carmela Full of Wishes

By Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson
It’s Carmela’s birthday! Already it’s a great day when she wakes up because she's finally old enough to accompany her big brother on his errands. The two head out into their busy, Hispanic neighbourhood, past street vendors, the Elote Lady, the 99 cent store, and graffiti on the walls. Along the way, Carmela finds a dandelion, and her imaginative mind goes wild with the endless wishes she could make by blowing on it. As the two siblings go out scootering, it’s fun for Carmela, but it’s not a choice they have as their mother works in housekeeping for a fancy hotel, and their father is a day laborer who is no longer home. Carmela soon becomes worried that she’ll make the wrong wish on her dandelion puff, but her brother ultimately shows her that when one dream gets crushed, there is always hope. 

 

Illustrator Robinson portrays the wishes Carmela considers as papel picado decorations, like those hung for her birthday. Her wishes include a candy machine, her mother being able to sleep in one of the hotel beds she makes every day, and her father getting his papers fixed so he could come home. This is the second de la Peña–Robinson collaboration after Last Stop on Market Street and it is just as tremendous and important. It touches on immigration, class, and loss without dwelling on them. Carmela’s Spanish-speaking community is most certainly portrayed as a vibrant place of possibility, as Robinson’s acrylic painted collage cutouts show street vendors, workers in the fields, and sweeping views of the sea. Skillfully designed and developed, Carmela’s story radiates. 

Eyes That Kiss in the Corners

 

Eyes That Kiss in the Corners

By Joanna Ho

When a little girl notices her eyes look different from her friends’ eyes, she wonders why she has to be different. They all have big, round eyes "like sapphire lagoons with lashes like lace trim on ballgowns". She realizes that her eyes are like her family's eyes, and she slowly gathers strength and power in the knowledge that mother, her grandmother, and her little sister all have eyes that "kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea, crinkle into crescent moons, and are filled with stories of the past and hope for the future." Indeed, she is set down the path of self love, strength and acceptance.  

We all need stories like Eyes That Kiss in the Corners no matter what our race. If our eyes kiss in the corners, then this book can act as a mirror, a place one can see themselves. If our eyes do not kiss in the corners, then stories such as this one act as a window to the world and facilitate acceptance.

The illustrator, Dung Ho, presents vibrant images that have been digitally created and pair beautifully with the poetic prose. The author, Joanna Ho has an author page where she talks more about her own struggle with not feeling as if she fit into the world's standard of beauty. As she explains, this is essentially a book about love. "It is the story of the love shared between generations, the love we must develop for ourselves, and the love that we use to create change in the world."

Dragons in a Bag

Dragons in a Bag

By Zetta Elliott

A fresh, new, chapter-book fantasy series in an urban setting, Dragons in a Bag follows Jaxon as his mom leaves him with Ma, an older woman he's never met. He soon discovers Ma is not his grandmother, but a witch! And his mother was her apprentice. Ma tells Jaxon she needs help delivering baby dragons to a magical realm, but there are two important rules: do not open the bag they are in and do not feed them anything sweet. His friends, Vikram and Kavita, become involved in the adventure by freeing the baby dragons and sharing their sweets. Oops.

This is a perfect introductory fantasy novel for young readers. Because of the detailed world-building, it's a great primer to reading the Harry Potter books.

Saturday

Saturday

By Oge Mora

Oge Mora, the Caldecott Award Honor recipient for Thank you, Omu!, does a quick turnaround for another cheery picturebook, this one named Saturday. Ava and her mom set out to relish in their one day of the week spent together, as her mom works six days a week. What happens when they venture out begs the questions, how will you deal with life’s little road bumps?

Oge Mora's illustrations are vibrant collages created from paint, papers, textures she scans and photoshops, old book jackets she cuts up, sewing patterns, old paintings, china markers, and pastels.