Skip to main content

Book review: Nonni's Moon


Thank you to Julia Inserro, the author of the new picture book, Nonni's Moon, for gifting Field Elementary Library with a review copy.  Nonni's Moon  is written by Julia Inserro and illustrated by Lucy Smith, published by Julia Inserro. This is a picture book about a young girl and her family separated by many time zones, and their struggles to stay in touch. Beanie misses her Nonni desperately and wants to talk to her every day. Rather than calling on the phone, the two devise a clever plan to use the moon to send messages to each other.  

Beanie’s teacher wears a headscarf and her family is mixed race. Some elements of the illustrations, like the palm trees and desert hills outside Beanie’s school, may call to mind a setting in the Middle East, but no country is specifically mentioned in the text. Nonni, (Italian for “grandmother”) seems to live in a large city on the “other side of the world”, although the illustrations blend from page to page in such a way that it is difficult to place any character precisely in her setting.

The text is welcoming and natural at the beginning of the book, reflecting the way children talk about missing relatives and their attempts to understand time zones and large geographic distances. The solution about “sending messages through the moon” is comforting and sweet, and helps give Beanie things to look forward to each day besides just thinking about her sadness. Beanie is excited to share her strategy with her teacher who also has faraway relatives.

The text was very well paced until the last two pages, when an extra problem of how to use the new communication strategy during a new moon was introduced. But overall, many children with faraway family members will be able to relate to Beanie and her worries, and will appreciate her solution.

Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2019 (1/25/19) is in its 6th year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in home and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents and educators.  
We’d like to also give a shout-out to MCBD’s impressive CoHost Team who not only hosts the book review link-up on celebration day, but who also works tirelessly to spread the word of this event. View our CoHosts: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/about/co-hosts/
TWITTER PARTY Sponsored by Make A Way Media: MCBD’s super-popular (and crazy-fun) annual @McChildsBookDay Twitter Party will be held 1/27/19 at 9:00pm. E.S.T.
Join the conversation and win one of 12 five book bundles and one Grand Prize Book Bundle (12 books) that will be given away at the party! We will be giving away a prize every 5 minutes!
FREE RESOURCES from MCBD
Free Multicultural Books for Teachers:  https://wp.me/P5tVud-1H
Free Empathy Classroom Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians and Educators: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/teacher-classroom-empathy-kit/
Hashtag: Don’t forget to connect with us on social media and be sure and look for/use our official hashtag #ReadYourWorld.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book review: The Angel of Santo Tomas

Book review of The Angel of Santo Tomas: The Story of Fe del Mundo Written and illustrated by Tammy Yee Published by Tumblehome Books This picture book biography of 20th century Filipina pediatrician Fe del Mundo tells an inspiring true story about a person young readers will be able to relate to, as opposed to a story about someone adults will recognize. Fe del Mundo begins the book as a young girl in mourning for an older sister, deciding to take her sister's dream of becoming a doctor as her own, in memory of and honor of her sister. She excels at her studies and later immigrates to the United States, becoming the first woman and first person of Asian descent to attend Harvard. She leaves the US during World War II to return to the Philippines, where she invents an incubator and convinces authorities to move orphan children out of a prison camp into a home where she can care for them. After the war, she opens the first pediatric hospital in the country. The book includes a map,
1 comment
Read more

Book review: Kai and the Dancing Butterfly

Book review for "Kai and the Dancing Butterfly" Written by Crystal Z. Lee Illustrated by Allie Su Published by Balestier Press Picture book, informational text embedded in a story The information about Taiwan cities, parks and landmarks in this book is framed inside a story told by a purple butterfly named Kia who is travelling from north to south across the island. This references an actual biological event that happens each winter when hundreds of thousands of purple crow butterflies travel hundreds of kilometers to Maolin on the south of the island. The book includes mentions either in text or illustration of indigenous tribes of Taiwan, and unique Taiwanese fauna. At the end of the book is an extensive glossary of mentioned landmarks, with names in both English and Chinese, and brief descriptions.  The overall effect is of a tour guide to Taiwan, aimed at young children. This would be fun for both children visiting Taiwan for the first time, as well as children who have m
1 comment
Read more

Book review: A Promise is a Promise

A Promise is a Promise Written by Bridget Hodder and Fawzia Gilani-Williams Illustrated by Cinzia Battistel Published by Kar-Ben Publishing Picture Book This picture book opens up in a Moroccan village with two boys, Jacob and Hassan, and their friendship of shared treats, time at each other's homes, and the supportive relationships of their parents. Over several pages of rhythmic descriptions of how they spend their time with their own families and then with each other in Jacob's family's garden, we learn about the games they play, their chores, and their favorite foods from each other's culture. Hassan and Jacob decide that the garden, a prayer and a promise to their parents, warrants time and attention from them as well, so they take some of their afternoons away from play to maintain the garden. When dangerous developments in the outside world force Jacob's family to flee, Hassan promises to continue to care for the garden. Many decades later, he is rewarded wit
1 comment
Read more