January 26, 2023
Today’s review is a bit different (and early!) because I got the opportunity to be an ambassador for Multicultural Children’s Book Day and review a book they chose for me. To give you some background, Multicultural Children’s Book Day is a non-profit whose mission is to raise awareness about children’s books that celebrate diversity and to get more of these books into classrooms and libraries.
Today we have "Dazzling Travis", a rhyming story about Travis, a child who enjoys dancing, playing and dressing up. Some bullies at the playground try to get Travis to only play gender conforming games, but Travis stands up and tells them “I am who I am!”. Travis doesn’t let the bullies stop him being his dazzling self and playing the way he wants to.
Bits and Pieces: The author is a Tennessee gal like me and it's always a pleasure to see the Southern ladies succeed! Also, there’s some interesting backmatter about those who faced adversity and kept their originality to give kids further examples of dazzling people. Langston Hughes and Elizabeth Stride had great, short bios. Coco Chanel had a bio as well, but she was a known Nazi informer so that confused me a bit.
Not Sure About: The book was a bit on the nose for me, but it did deliver on the promise that Travis would dazzle and be confident and original!
Favorite Part: I always like seeing children in bowties. It’s such a jazzy look. Also this is based on a real child and the author gave us some information on how she came up with the idea. Love seeing the inspiration behind the work!
*This book was provided to the reviewer free of charge for an honest review. #ReadYourWorld
