G My Name Is Girl

January 1, 2021
Riffing on a 1950s playground rhyme, this alphabet book uses the rhythm of "A, My Name Is Alice" but does not include the references to husbands and products. Instead, the rhymes concentrate on pairs of girls or women--best friends, mothers and daughters, cousins, etc.--in an alphabetical list of countries around the world. These young women describe themselves and their female counterparts in positive and exciting ways: "I, my name is INDU, and my niece's name is ISHANI. / We come from INDIA, and we are INVENTIVE." The duo fly a large, handmade kite on a flat roof in an Indian city. The illustrations have an attractive, stylized paper-cut quality. The girls and women are diverse in skin tone and hair color. As usual in an alphabet book, X proves to be a problem, and the solution is a little clunky: "X, my name is AXELLE, and my nana's name is MAXINE. / We come from LUXEMBOURG, and we are EXTRAORDINARY." These two soar in a hang glider over a snowy landscape. A concluding double-page spread shows all the girls and women in a large courtyard, joyfully playing together. Readers could play a guessing game, remembering their names and countries. The countries include nations usually not mentioned, including Burkina Faso and Qatar, and the rear endpapers present a simple map of the continents with the girls' faces keyed to their countries. Both features enhance learning opportunities. (This book was reviewed digitally with 8.5-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 44.6% of actual size.) An easy way to open up children's eyes to girls around the world. (Picture book. 5-7)

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January 18, 2021
In an alliterative abecedarian, Masi takes readers on a global journey to meet girls and women from 26 countries who exhibit as many vaguely aspirational traits. Full-color spreads in muted hues accompany the litany, depicting subjects of various skin tones, hair textures, and abilities against a slice of each country’s landscape—in Argentina, two “adventurous” siblings jump rope against a mountainous backdrop, while New Zealander Nelly, who uses a wheelchair, proves “nurturing,” coddling a lamb in a grassy field. One scene seems to reduce a country to a single traumatic event (two “heroic” figures in Haiti are seen picking their way across a pile of rubble, animals on their backs), while others extol virtues that feel laudable chiefly from a Western perspective, but the friendly illustrations of an inclusive range of girls are notably lively. Includes a map of highlighted locations. Ages 3–7.