Children's Books discussion

The book is definitely simplistic and a bit fantastical in that Owen leaves school to “homeschool” after just one day of being the outcast at school. However, I think for the target audience the positives in the overarching message outweigh the aspects we adults might know to be a bit more complicated in the real world.

Kathryn wrote: "A New Friend. I think this would be a great, gentle story to share with young readers about acceptance, not listening to prejudice, being the change even if your friends aren’t, etc..."

Thank you, Kathryn. Ha! I might check out this one and might pass it along to my friend. She's passed suggestions given here to a friend of hers from England, someone who's black and also has a young child, and who's unfortunately been the recipient of hateful comments. *sigh*

Gosh. I had hoped that in England they'd be better by now.

Cheryl wrote: "Gosh. I had hoped that in England they'd be better by now."

No, they're not. People are people everywhere and some everywhere are bigots.

Lisa wrote: "Kathryn wrote: "A New Friend. I think this would be a great, gentle story to share with young readers about acceptance, not listening to prejudice, being the change even if your fri..."

So sad, Lisa. I am glad that they have good friends, at least. I hope that they will enjoy the book, if they read it. You, to.

This is not really a book on racism (and I also do not really even know if The Wooden Doll is actually still in print). But I found the text really poignant and that it totally shows what immigration means, that it (and in particular in the past) meant leaving everything behind and not ever seeing one's home country and one's family again.

Truth be told, I would more than likely never have even considered Susan Bonners' The Wooden Doll, but yes, a chance encounter with the book title whilst doing research on Open Library for something entirely different (and of course also a general plot description I do find intriguing) has made me decide to borrow The Wooden Doll. And indeed, especially with regard to Susan Bonners' presented text, I am definitely and certainly very much glad I did (with the fact that Susan Bonners has dedicated The Wooden Doll to her clearly immigrant grandparents and actually to ALL immigrants also being both incredibly sweet and equally something that is so totally and absolutely necessary to remember, for with the increasing animosity and bigotry towards immigrants, towards newcomers in general to the USA and indeed also to Canada, we should, we really and truly must remember and also continuously teach our children that not only are we nations of immigrants but indeed that hatred towards the newly arrived and the newly arriving thus and indeed most viciously also in my opinion absolutely equals denigrating and horribly disrespecting our OWN ancestors and our personal family backgrounds).

And yes, not only Susan Bonners' writing style (which is sweetly descriptive and also manages to with understated grace and a delightful quietude totally capture young first person narrator Stephanie's voice and her myriad of emotions) but also and just as strongly the themes and contents of The Wooden Doll, Stephanie's story of how she discovers her grandfather's (but in fact really her great grandmother's) set of nesting dolls on the cupboard whilst visiting her grandparents and finally finds out about her Polish immigrant family background, is delightfully, wonderfully evocative, as well as being incredibly emotionally poignant. For The Wooden Doll clearly and even at times a bit painfully demonstrates just what immigration (at least in the past) has tended to always mean, that it meant leaving one's home and one's family behind for good and in fact never seeing any of them again, since returning to visit was (and for many immigrants often actually still is) an impossibility, that once you say goodbye and leave your home country and your family, it is indeed a goodbye for ever (and which does in The Wooden Doll rather explain Stephanie's grandfather not only being a bit sad and homesick regarding his mother and his boyhood memories of Poland but that the set of wooden nesting dolls are not only massively important to and for him but likely also one of the only physical and actual object attachments and remembrances to his Polish boyhood and to his family).

Now I do wish that I could give The Wooden Doll four or even five stars (instead of my three star ranking), as narrationally, Susan Bonners' text most certainly has been a total and evocative personal reading gem. However, The Wooden Doll is a picture book, and the accompanying artwork (which also looks to be by Susan Bonners) feels simply too much like a set of photographs for my aesthetic tastes, presenting an accurate but also severely lacking in imagination visual mirror of the printed words, of Susan Bonners' (or rather narrator Stephanie's) musings and descriptions (and well, I personally just really do not all that much enjoy ultra realistic drawings and paintings and have therefore found the illustrations for The Wooden Doll just not all that special and much too lacking in expressiveness and emotionality for me).

Manybooks wrote: "This is not really a book on racism (and also do not really even know if The Wooden Doll is actually still in print). But I found the text really poignant and that it totally shows w..."

That does sound like a very special and important story. Too bad about the illustrations (the cover art is not that appealing to me, either) but I will still watch for this.

Speaking of immigration, I recently learned about World Refugee Day. Due to COVID, the celebration here was a virtual one (June 20th this year) but still had some wonderful stories shared, cultural dance and music performances, poetry readings, etc. from our local refugee community. Very special to watch. I am hoping we will be able to attend in person next year.

Kathryn wrote: "Manybooks wrote: "This is not really a book on racism (and also do not really even know if The Wooden Doll is actually still in print). But I found the text really poignant and that ..."

World Refugee Day does sound interesting.

I found The Wooden Doll on Open Library, but if you want to share it with your sons, you should check if you can find a used copy online. The illustrations are not horrible, but just too photography like for my tastes.

Thank you, Kathryn and Gundula!

This might be a good book: Our Favorite Day of the Year by A. E. Ali

Lisa wrote: "This might be a good book: Our Favorite Day of the Year by A. E. Ali"

That looks wonderful. Thank you!

Kathryn wrote: "Lisa wrote: "This might be a good book: Our Favorite Day of the Year by A. E. Ali"

That looks wonderful. Thank you!"

I also think it looks good. You're welcome.

From another thread, these might be helpful resources:

No titles, but a lovely picture and short essay about the author's "dark brown" children in a library: https://psiloveyou.xyz/a-little-magic...

A list of picturebooks for ages 1-8. probably not particularly helpful but I think that it enriches this list for future readers of the thread: https://bookriot.com/childrens-books-...

An African-American focused list: https://aalbc.com/books/children.php

A Black Joy list: https://blog.cincinnatilibrary.org/Bl...

Book Riot vetted their list for OwnVoices: https://bookriot.com/black-childrens-...

Thank you, Cheryl.

Maybe not exactly what this particular family is looking for, but a terrific resource for age 7 to 107 about the 40,000 trackliners of the South and about Reconstruction and etc., and about doing primary research: Ain't Nothing but a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry. (Note the "nothing" not "nothin'" like we're more accustomed to seeing.)

Cheryl wrote: "Maybe not exactly what this particular family is looking for, but a terrific resource for age 7 to 107 about the 40,000 trackliners of the South and about Reconstruction and etc., and about doing p..."

Thanks, Cheryl.