A Black girl named Sophie and her dad have been invited to a birthday party for Olive at the top of their apartment building in this fun book about community. Sophie and her dad, homemade cookies in hand, get on the elevator and ride to the top, stopping at each floor to take on new passengers that reflect their diverse community.
On one floor are two White brothers who look like bikers, with black boots, sleeveless shirts, and tattoos—but one has images of cats on his belt buckle and t-shirt; the other has a belt buckle that says “Knit,” and a t-shirt emblazoned with knitting needles and a ball of yarn—unexpected and gender creative interests. On the next floor, two women holding hands (one Black, one White) get on with their dog. Other neighbors climb aboard, include Muslim grandparents and their grandkids, bringing gulab jamun; a Latinx family with five children, including two in tutus, one who reads as a girl and one as a boy; an Asian man bringing a cactus; and a Canadian Asian girl in a baseball cap.
On the seventh floor, “no one gets in”—except that young readers will be delighted to detect the cat that sneaks onto the elevator while the humans are looking the other way.
As the elevator grows increasingly crowded, everyone starts to giggle, but they are committed to including everyone, and all breathe in to let the final person on. Finally, in a wide pull-out spread, the elevator door bursts open and the crowd joyously rushes forward to greet the birthday girl, a poodle named Olive. Olive’s smiling human, who uses a wheelchair, sits next to her. On a final page, everyone is dancing or eating cake at tables around the room, and there are some additional indications of the support this community gives to each other: they are not all sitting by family, but intermingling. One of the biker brothers is even holding the infant of the Latinx family, freeing the parents to dance with their other kids—a nice moment of tenderness from a character who looks tough.
The community is clearly one of friendship and support, and the question of whether everyone will fit into the elevator provides dramatic tension to keep readers turning the pages. Sherry J. Lee’s text is masterfully spare. Charlene Chua’s illustrations, in the narrowly proportioned (or elevator-proportioned) book, say as much about the characters as the text does, and offer lots of little details to discover. A delight from bottom to top.
