My Extraordinary Face: A Celebration of Differences. Marissa Suchyta and Samir Mardini. Illustrated by Violet Tobacco. 2024. 35 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars] [picture book]
First sentence: Every face is special. Your face is one of a kind.
Premise/plot: This is an instructional--or perhaps motivational--picture book that celebrates facial differences with the mind to encourage young children [or siblings of those special-faced children] how to cope in a world that doesn't always celebrate or appreciate differences--particularly physical differences.
The illustrations show a [small] handful of special, extraordinary faces. These illustrations obviously don't cover any/all facial differences. [I don't find that problematic. Just stating the obvious].
The book addresses some scenarios in which a child with an extraordinary face--to use the book's language--might be stared at or questioned. What do you do in that situation?
Quoting from the book, "gather up all the love and care and kindness inside you. Let it fill your entire chest. Now blow it all out into an enormous bubble around you. Your bubble blocks the stares. Inside the bubble, you are powerful. Let's practice blowing up your bubble. Take a deep breath in and let it all the way out. In here, you are safe. Now think about three things that make you proud. Think of those amazing things and keep your head up high. Stand up tall. Fill your bubble with pride..."
The book also encourages young ones to create a plan for handling these situations and rehearsing what to do, what to say, how to react. Practice. Practice. Practice until you're comfortable and confident talking about what makes your face special, different, unique, extraordinary.
The book concludes with some tips for adults. One tip, for example, is to talk openly with your young child about his/her difference(s). To be proactive in talking about the encounters he/she may experience in the future. Another suggestion--which I'm not sure I'm 100% supportive of--is having parents talk with teachers about having discussions with the whole class to explain a student's differences.
My thoughts: I honestly don't know how to feel about this one. My expectations were high because I do think the topic/subject is important. This isn't a picture story book. This is more a motivational pamphlet in picture book form. Again, not a bad thing.
It does seem a bit 'new thought' to me. Which may not be problematic for 99% of potential readers. But Christians readers may want to read this before hand before reading aloud and sharing with little ones. I do think the Christian perspective would be different.
© 2024 Becky Laney of Young Readers
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