Drag queen Nina West’s first picture book is a bold, bright celebration of kindness. We journey with a young girl (later revealed to be Nina herself) “to find Kind… or all the kinds of Kind we can.” She starts by putting on her “adventure gear”—a favorite outfit, a backpack filled with notepad, crayons, and more. Her energy and enthusiasm are contagious. West also gives her protagonist a love of wordplay—the girl uses her notebook “to docufy the OUTSTANDABLE and BIGANTIC things we find along the way,” for example. She addresses readers directly with information about herself and asks them questions as well, such as inquiring about whether they’ve ever made up words themselves. It’s an interactive approach that would make this book a winning choice for read-alouds (whether by drag queen or an ordinary parent or teacher).
As the girl travels her neighborhood (which includes a two-woman couple), she points out examples of kindness, like saying hello, making jokes, and helping each other, but does so with a kind of frenetic, anthropological zeal, taking the pedantic edge off her observations and continuing the wordplay and fun. There’s one somber moment when she encounters a boy being bullied (for unspecified reasons), but assures him he is valuable before telling the bully, “Have you had a bad day? You don’t get to take it out on someone else.” She adds, “Hearing what someone else has to say is one of the very best kinds of Kind. Let’s call this Phonic Friend-o-gram.”
In the end, she thanks readers for helping her be her best self and naming kindness where it was found. “Being ourselves is the greatest kind of Kind we can be because there is no other you out there,” she concludes, before settling in to sleep.
While there is little clearly queer representation here (aside from the two-woman couple in the background), combine that with West’s authorship and a use of rainbow iconography, plus a message that will resonate with many queer folks, and it’s enough to warrant inclusion in this database. It’s a joyous book for any audience.
West is White; her neighborhood is diverse in racial/ethnic identities.
