OCTOBER 2021 - AudioFile
Who better to read her first children’s picture book than poet-activist Amanda Gorman? Gorman’s lyrical voice features the strong sense of rhythm, rhyming, and laudable phrasing that she has quickly become known for. The audio begins,“I can hear change humming / In its loudest, proudest song. / I don’t fear change coming, / And so I sing along.” One appreciates how Gorman’s uplifting words urge children not to fear. Gorman’s pitch-perfect emotional tone captures the poem’s message of building bridges, not walls. Though the audiobook succeeds well on its own, it becomes even more powerful when listened to while reading the companion picture book. Children will love Loren Long’s illustrations of two children who team up to change the world. S.W. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 07/19/2021
This rallying cry, the picture book debut of presidential inaugural poet Gorman, opens with a cross-legged Black child strumming a guitar: “I can hear change humming/ In its loudest, proudest song./ I don’t fear change coming,/ And so I sing along,” the confident first-person rhyming narration begins. As the child walks past a vivid mural of Martin Luther King Jr., they encounter a light-skinned Jewish youth carrying a tuba. Outstretching a garbage bag, the first child entreats the second to join in cleaning up a park. The duo then continues through their city modeling serving actions: offering sustenance to a parent and child, delivering groceries to an elderly person, outstretching instruments to other children, and working toward community betterment. Subtle allusion to contemporary events (“Take a knee to make a stand”) enrich the text. Acrylic and colored pencil illustrations by Long (Someone Builds the Dream) have a stunning depth of light and gradient, conveying a variously inclusive community working toward populating a symbolic mural of their own. This uplifting serenade will instill readers of any age with hope for the future and the initiative to improve it. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
★ “In rich language and vivid art, this hopeful celebration of the life-affirming power of change to ripple out into a better future is irresistible. Text and poetry work together to regulate a careful reading of this beautiful work. One to keep, to read, and to reread.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
★ “This uplifting serenade will instill readers of any age with hope for the future and the initiative to improve it.” —Publishers Weekly, (starred review)
“A lovely and loving call to action and kindness.” —Booklist
“So rich are both the art and the verses in uplifting imagery that it’s hard to imagine any young audience remaining unstirred by this call to be the change they want to see.” –School Library Journal
“This inspiring call to action unambiguously suggests that every individual, regardless of age, can contribute to making the world a better place.” –The Horn Book
School Library Journal
10/02/2021
Gr 1–3—A celebrated young poet and perennially bestselling illustrator pair up to invite readers on a musical celebration of change. Building a story on Gorman's declamatory lines—"I can hear change humming/ In its loudest, proudest song./ I don't fear change coming,/ And so I sing along"—in typically polished, romanticized scenes, Long follows a small Black child carrying a big, beautifully decorated guitar as she gathers a thoroughly diverse group of young musicians to clean up a neatly littered playground, build a ramp for a child in a wheelchair, offer a meal to a homeless mom and son, and finally march beneath a huge urban mural. It proclaims, "We are the change." "I don't make a taller fence," the poet writes, "But fight to build a better bridge." Readers will have to look elsewhere for leads to specific ways and means, but Gorman's soaring appeal to "sing along" joins a long chorus of like calls and may kindle a fresh spate of young social activists. VERDICT So rich are both the art and the verses in uplifting imagery that it's hard to imagine any young audience remaining unstirred by this call to be the change they want to see.—John Peters, Children's Literature Consultant, NY
OCTOBER 2021 - AudioFile
Who better to read her first children’s picture book than poet-activist Amanda Gorman? Gorman’s lyrical voice features the strong sense of rhythm, rhyming, and laudable phrasing that she has quickly become known for. The audio begins,“I can hear change humming / In its loudest, proudest song. / I don’t fear change coming, / And so I sing along.” One appreciates how Gorman’s uplifting words urge children not to fear. Gorman’s pitch-perfect emotional tone captures the poem’s message of building bridges, not walls. Though the audiobook succeeds well on its own, it becomes even more powerful when listened to while reading the companion picture book. Children will love Loren Long’s illustrations of two children who team up to change the world. S.W. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2021-06-29
Great expectations of wordsmith Gorman are not disappointed in this “children’s anthem” to change.
In rhyming verses, a first-person narrator sings along, telling readers, “I can hear change coming / In its loudest, proudest song.” The poem does become a kind of song, as the child, a Black girl with glowing brown skin and textured hair, carries a guitar. As she joins with others, she hands them instruments, and together they change the world in large and small ways—delivering groceries and meals, cleaning up outdoor spaces, and making literal and figurative music with their deeds and their instruments. Long’s illustrations offer an interpretation of the anthem that expands upon the text and becomes its own rhythmic story. A quiet opening and a stunning second spread one could gaze at for days are followed by spreads that alternate between white space and full color, climaxing with a crescendo and then ending on a soft, steady note, when the narrator looks out to readers, offering them an invitation to carry the song on into the world. In rich language and vivid art, this hopeful celebration of the life-affirming power of change to ripple out into a better future is irresistible. Text and poetry work together to regulate a careful reading of this beautiful work. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
One to keep, to read, and to reread. (Picture book. 4-8)
