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O'Leary, Sara

A Kid Is a Kid Is a Kid

32 pp. | Groundwood | August, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-1-77306-250-1 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-77306-251-8
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Qin Leng. This follow-up to A Family Is a Family Is a Family brings us to school. "Being the new kid is hard," states a dark-haired child approaching a school building. In response to a question we infer has been asked by a second child, the newcomer asserts, "I can think of better things to ask than if I'm a boy or a girl." One by one, others chime in with what they wish others would ask them. A petite boy wishes people would ask him about the big words he can spell instead of about his small size. A child with a prosthetic leg exclaims, "Ask me what I can do, not what I can't!"--and an illustration shows that child standing ­triumphantly atop a rocky hill, arms stretched high in victory. Each full-bleed spread splits the speaker's perspective in two: on the verso, we see the child joining a growing playground group while the recto gives a peek into their life in class or outside the school gates. With a Quentin Blake–esque liveliness to her lines, Leng's watercolor and ink illustrations capture the intimate details of young children's lives and dreams. At last, the dark-haired "new kid" shares a question that every child wants to be asked: "Hey kid, do you want to play?" With a unanimous spirit of inclusion within its pages, the story urges readers to rethink the way they first encounter others--by starting with an invitation.
Reviewer: Grace McKinney | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2021

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