Publishers Weekly
12/20/2021
In the previous collaborators’ (Chocolate Me!) rhythmic picture book, several Black children each query an elder about instances of protesting (“Why are those people shouting?”), a vigil (“Why are those people crying?”), and marching (“Why are those people marching?”) shown in illustrations. The queries highlight a bigger movement, as well as the racism and injustice behind the gatherings: “Our people are marching because we have been stomped on and stepped over for way too long.” The q&a format and a resultant refrain of the children responding “OH” keep the pace consistent, building to the question, “Why are those buildings burning?”—“Sometimes buildings must burn./ The buildings burn for us./ The anger burning those/ buildings is us,” Diggs writes—and a child’s call to prayer for faith, love, and peace. Though the explanation behind the fire feels insufficiently contextualized for the book’s stated age range, Evans’s surreally colored, fluid illustrations add depth and emotion to this intergenerational narrative with a hopeful ending. Ages 3–6. Agent: Tina Dubois, ICM Partners. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
"Diggs makes these gutting conversations loving, plainspoken, and accessible to children. ... The question-and-answer format, the hallmark of parenting, helps the characters process large thoughts and huge problems, and yet find some paths to solutions."—School Library Journal, starred review
"Evans’s surreally colored, fluid illustrations add depth and emotion to this intergenerational narrative with a hopeful ending."—Publishers Weekly
School Library Journal
★ 01/01/2022
K-Gr 2—A conversation about race takes place between a loving Black father and his child, who is full of questions: "'Daddy?' 'Yes, my sweet boy.' 'Why are those people shouting?' 'Our people are shouting because we need to be heard. We need to be heard.'" Next, a small brown girl wants to know why she sees people crying at a makeshift vigil set up on the street. "Our people are crying because they are in pain." A brown woman in a head scarf answers a boy's questions. There are buildings burning as the story crescendos, and one girl decides to pray for the pain, the destruction—for peace for her people. Diggs makes these gutting conversations loving, plainspoken, and accessible to children. They will also be helpful in coaxing little ones into broader discussions with the adults sharing this work. The question-and-answer format, the hallmark of parenting, helps the characters process large thoughts and huge problems, and yet find some paths to solutions. The illustrations make such big topics intimate, and somehow fathomable as well as heartbreaking. VERDICT Not a story as much as a workbook, this title brings even the youngest children into an important, essential conversation, and points a way to understanding and change.—Kimberly Olson Fakih
