english

4 – 8 years

• historical figures
• self-confidence
• friendship,
• advocacy
• empowerment
• social-emotional learning

miranda paul and ebony glenn

summary:

Happy Saturday! As you know, it’s time for #sweetsandsocialjustice and this week is a picture book all about how and when to speak up! This newly released book is illustrated by one of our favorites, Ebony Glenn, and the story follows a group of diverse kids throughout their school day. When I was in school, I used to dream about the summer because I loved camping so much. So I made a marshmallow cookie (actually by accident) to tide me over until I could escape to the woods.

Speaking directly to the reader, the book is full of tips to help readers know when they should speak up. Something I love about the illustrations is how the reader can piece together the situation and help figure out what to say. This is so empowering, and helps develop critical thinking skills! Some situations covered are hearing rumors you know aren’t true (like how a mysterious brown stain appeared on the back of someone’s pants) or inviting a new student to sit at lunch. Even if you make a mistake, speak up and apologize. Being able to advocate for yourself, whether that’s expressing gratitude, the mispronunciation of your name, or because a situation is unsafe, is an invaluable skill and one that will inevitably turn the tides more towards the equitable treatment of people. If kids (especially ones with privilege) are not taught to speak up when they witness a situation in which they should speak up, marginalization of others will continue. In the back of the book are some real-life examples of kids who spoke up! There are also helpful lists of situations where a person should speak up, and situations that can be let go (like when kids can solve the problem themselves). There’s also some options for speaking up without saying a word, like writing letters or volunteering. I love this entire book, and the additional resources in back. This provides so much opportunity for further discussion, and introduces a bunch of really cool kids that have changed the world by speaking up! I love this picture book a lot, and I think you will too.

This book was kindly sent by HMH Kids and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be able to review it. All opinions and decision to review is my own!