Just Read!

January 15, 2019
Apparently, there are many ways to read.Degman's first-person text opens with an exultant declaration--"HOORAY! I know how to read on my own!"--but an accompanying, vibrant illustration doesn't indicate which of the seven diverse children in a book-filled room is the speaker. This question isn't resolved as the narrative proceeds, "But sometimes I don't want to do it alone. So... / I read with an astronaut, pirate, or farmer. I read with a clown or a knight wearing armor." It's rather confusing that the depicted reading children are reading alone while imagining the astronaut, pirate, farmer, clown, and knight floating above them. Tentler-Krylov's splashy, stylish, bright watercolors show children reading different sorts of texts in various contexts--road signs, maps, magazines, sheet music, and Braille books. The spread depicting Braille reads, "I read with my fingers across bumpy lines"; across the gutter one child signs to another: "I read with my voice or my hands using signs." This last line seems a bit off as it positions oral and signed language as texts to be read, but the aim is clearly inclusive. The book culminates in an idyllic scene of children reading in a tree that begs to become a literacy campaign poster. As with many books about reading, it's not much of a story, but it does mean well.A read that affirms reading. (Picture book. 4-7)

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March 1, 2019
Preschool-G Just read! It could be a command, a suggestion, or a declaration of accomplishment. Either way, this lively book is a delightful tribute to reading anything and everything all the time. The solitary act of reading is recast as a venture into worlds of people and lives far different from our own: I read with an astronaut, pirate or farmer / I read with a clown or a knight wearing armor. Jaunty rhyming couplets bounce around the pages as the children in the illustrations read books, magazines, hand signs, road signs, maps, sheet music, and Braille. Vibrant watercolor illustrations are used to full effect, so that washes of blue transport a girl reading about sharks into a tropical seascape, and a boy reading about tigers sees the big cat's fiery coat leaping from a pile of fall leaves. The diversity of reading material is matched by the diversity of readers, contexts, and interests. There's something for everyone; there's no holding back?just read!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)