This week’s new book highlights are two titles that focus on connection and empathy, celebrating the love between parents and children and promoting friendships and kindness across differences. LGBTQ characters are among a range of identities portrayed.
All Are Welcome: Wherever You Go
All Are Welcome: Wherever You Go, by Alexandra Penfold, illustrated by Suzanne Kaufman (Knopf): From the author/illustrator pair behind All Are Welcome, All Are Neighbors, and Big Feelings—all joyous books about communities and connection—comes this story that follows the same group of families (including one with two moms) as they celebrate the memorable moments of their children’s lives from infancy onward.
As the text unfolds, the children play across the pages with their parents and each other, at home, at neighbors’, at community events, and more. We see a first bike ride, a first day of school, a stage performance—but also moments of overcoming everyday fears, of helping a friend, of splashing in the rain, of family reading time. The families and individuals are diverse in many ways, but also part of the same caring community.
“You’re my best adventure./You’re my wildest dream,” says the text, in the voice of all parents—but it then acknowledges that “The big world is waiting.” When it’s time to go, we read, no matter where the child goes or whatever they do, “I will always, always, ALWAYS love you.” The images here show us a (kindergarten? elementary school?) graduation of kids in mortarboards, in a spread that folds out as they toss the mortarboards high.
This is a picture book, and aimed at young children—but its warm and inclusive message about growth, letting go, and the ongoing nature of a parent’s love, along with the graduation imagery at the end, may make it a popular gift for older graduates as well (in the vein of Dr. Seuss’s Oh, The Places You’ll Go).
In addition to the two-mom family that appears throughout, a two-dad couple is in one scene at the end. Additionally, one child with long blond hair wears a tuxedo on a couple of pages, and another wears rainbow socks (and appeared in All Are Neighbors with the same socks and a rainbow flag, implying a queer identity). I’m tagging the book “Gender creative girl” and “Nonbinary/genderqueer kid” in my database, although their specific identities are not stated explicitly, since I want folks seeking such representation to be able to find this.
Another recommended addition to the series, with a potential audience far beyond the stated age range.
Someone Just Like You
Someone Just Like You, by Helen Docherty, illustrated by David Roberts (Simon & Schuster): Somewhere in this world, there is someone just like you,/who finds the same things funny and who laughs the way you do,” begins this book about empathy, connections, and acts of kindness across difference. Even if you speak a different language or look different on the outside, the book tells us, you may still find that the same things make you happy, curious, sad, or scared. Wouldn’t things be better if we knew that there was someone out there like this who cared about us? Someone with whom we could share our stories? And someone to whom we should extend help if needed—a kind word, a shared toy or toiletry, a listening ear—say, if the person needs shelter or a place to sleep, if they had to leave their friends behind, or “had to leave their home because they didn’t want to fight”? The book doesn’t get into the details of what might have precipitated those situations, leaving plenty of room for adults and young readers to discuss.
There’s a sweet call to action here in Helen Docherty’s text, but it is David Robert’s charming illustrations that really get the point across. They show pairs of children with some things in common—such as liking to draw or being amused by their cats—but also with differences, whether of skin tone, ethnic identity, physical ability, gender, or combinations thereof. One child, who reads as a boy, is also wearing a tutu; he’s paired with another boy who has painted nails and whose shirt sports a rainbow. They’re clearly connected via their gender creativity, although one has a prosthetic leg and the other wears cochlear implants. Being “just like” someone else is more about internal attitudes and interests rather than external appearances, the story seems to say, and it is these internal commonalities that should compel people to reach out in friendship.
This is a book with a message, but it’s an important one, nicely conveyed, making this a highly recommended title.