Sound Off! My Voice Is A Trumpet by Jimmie Allen

SOME HAVE A VOICE AS TALL AS A TREE.

SOME HAVE A VOICE AS SMALL AS A TREE.

There are old, wise voices and there are new and bright voices.

THERE'S THE VOICE THAT ROARS LIKE A LION--

. . .one that says never stop tryin'. . .

A TRUMPET--STRONG AND CLEAR!

Discovering that we need to learn and what we need to know before we speak up, is important. When we speak, the words needs to be loving and inviting to all our brothers and sisters.

SAY NO TO HATE!

Jimmie Allen's first picture book, My Voice Is a Trumpet (Flamingo Books, 2021) is an invitation to youngsters to think about how to think about finding their own voices in their day to day lives, to stop and think about the effects of what you say when standing up against what seems wrong and standing up for what feels right.

Says School Library Journal's starred review, ". . . "A suggested first choice for libraries, the rhythm and flow of words perfectly match the art while advising readers to choose love and use their voices."

That's Mime! Being a Friend by Salina Yoon

Dennis was a ordinary boy

Who expressed himself in extraordinary ways.

You see, Dennis's means of communicating is mimicry.

That's right! He's a mime!

Other kids call a tree a tree. Dennis mimes a tree. Other kids bring something to show and tell ALL ABOUT IT! Dennis mimes a process, morphing from egg to chrysalis to caterpillar to butterfly.

Dennis has a striped French pullover, a top hat, slippers, and white gloves--the classic costume of the mime--and comes to school ready for a one-man show.

But being on the other side of the mime's invisible wall is lonely.

One day Dennis kicked a imaginary ball...

And someone caught it. Her name was Joy.

Joy mimes right back, opening a door in that invisible wall, and suddenly Dennis is not alone. He doesn't have to say a word.

Because friends don't have to.

Friends speak the same language, in Salina Yoon's latest, Be a Friend (Bloomsbury Press, 2016). Done up in thin blackline and spare palette, Yoon takes a light look at that special something that makes friendship happen between two people, in carefully chosen text in which her charming characters tell most of the story visually. The youngest children may need a little lesson in what pantomime and mime are before they get what Yoon is trying to show with her dotted outlines, but slightly older beginning readers will enjoy reading this one on their own.

For another example of Yoon's gentle, understated storytelling, see more of Salina Yoon's work here.)