Change Sings

LoveReading4Kids Says

A Children's Anthem

After the triumph of her performance at the inauguration, this first picture book from poet Amanda Gorman has been hotly anticipated and it certainly does not disappoint! The combination of the lyrical writing with the luminous illustrations from the acclaimed Loren Long, is a marriage made in heaven.

From the first page, where we meet the young girl with her guitar, centre stage on a white page and she announces “I can hear change humming/ In its loudest, proudest song./ I don’t fear change coming,/ And so I sing along,” we are swept along by her gentle, quiet confidence. The second spread is a glorious technicolour image of an inspiring community mural of Martin Luther King and we see her meet a light skinned boy carrying a tuba. She offers him a rubbish bag and together they begin to clear litter from the park. As page follows page they continue to reach out to others, “though it might take some courage” and to model little acts of kindness: feeding the destitute, delivering groceries to an elderly person, constructing a ramp for a disabled child and all the time building the song, gathering instruments and changing their community for the better; building towards a glorious symbolic mural of their own. We end as we began with our narrator on a white page, this time looking directly at us with an invitation to carry the song onwards and leaving the reader with a belief in collective action for positive change. Powerful words and images that repay multiple visits and leave an indelible impression.

A must have addition to school collections and children's bookcases.

Joy Court

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