Today Is Different

by Doua Moua, Kim Holt (Illustrator)

Overview

Standing together makes all of us stronger.

Mai, a young Hmong girl, and Kiara, a young Black girl, are best friends. They do everything together—riding the bus, eating lunch, playing at recess. But one day Kiara misses school and Mai goes looking for answers. When she learns that her best friend is protesting an act of police violence against the Black community, Mai decides to join the protest too. Her parents at first want to protect her by keeping her at home, but she shows them that standing together makes all of us stronger.

Written by author and actor Doua Moua, who played Po in Disney's live-action Mulan, this picture book provides an inspiring look at the value of allyship and solidarity with Black Lives Matter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781728430294
Publisher:	Lerner Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/05/2022
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,086,109
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	530L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 8 Years

About the Author

Doua Moua is an actor and writer based in Los Angeles, California. Moua recently played Chien Po in Disney's live-action remake of Mulan. As a writer, he has received recognition for his movie script The Harvest on the Cape List/ Black List, a We Screenplay Finalist, and an Academy Nicholl Fellowship Semi-Finalist. Today Is Different is his debut picture book.

Kim Holt is an artist and children's book illustrator. Her passion for art and drawing started at an early age, fueled by her family's love for the arts. She received her BBA in Marketing from Howard University and her BFA in Animation from the Academy of Art University. Her goal as an artist is to create images that bring back memories and create pictures that make children wish they were inside the scenes. She lives in Maryland with her family.

Editorial Reviews

"Children can feel overwhelmed by acts of injustice; this book provides a good place to start figuring out how to help. An excellent discussion-starter for a family or a classroom."—Children's Literature

From the Publisher

2022-01-12
When a Black man is “hurt” by police and Black Lives Matter protests are staged in her community, 7-year-old Hmong protagonist Mai knows that “today is different.”

Then Mai’s Black best friend, Kiara, misses school; the two girls usually do everything together…“but not today.” Seeking to understand more about race, Mai questions her teenage brother, Tou, and learns that “in the Hmong culture, there are Black Hmong, White Hmong, Green Hmong, Striped Hmong, and many more.” Although their parents want to shield them from the unfolding events—“It doesn’t have anything to do with you”—the siblings make a protest sign, and Mai uses colored pencils as an object lesson to show her parents that “if we all stand together, we will be unbreakable.” She and Tou run away to a Black Lives Matter rally to march in solidarity with Kiara’s family and are pleasantly surprised when Mom and Dad join them. The book focuses on racism against Black Americans, but Dad and Tou board up their house’s windows, a potentially confusing detail that the story glosses over. Though risking oversimplifying how children process racial trauma, Moua positively portrays a cross-cultural friendship and explores how racial violence impacts children. The backmatter explains the historical discrimination against Hmong people in many countries and emphasizes the importance of African American and Hmong communities uniting to fight injustice. Colorful but mediocre digital paint illustrations add little to the telling but realistically portray urban diversity.

An important story about how marginalized groups can work together for social justice, but some elements feel ill-conceived. (author’s note, pronunciation guide, glossary) (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews