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Summary
Summary
Spectacularly Beautiful tells the story of Shahad, a refugee who has moved to a new country and started a new school with her new teacher, Ms. Truong. Shahad comes to school every day with perfectly braided hair tied in ribbons. But her hair can't hide the scars on her face and leg that are painful reminders of the country she fled, making her feel less than beautiful, and different from her peers.
Author Notes
Lisa Lucas started her career writing for Reader's Digest Magazine. She later wrote extensively on literacy and health, scripts for movies and television and historical fiction for Middle Readers. She was awarded the CIBC Children's Miracle Maker Award and the Canada Post Community Literacy Award. Five years ago, she joined forces with Laurie Stein, a Canadian illustrator, and together they have created over 20 children's books. Their work was recently recognized by The Canadian Children's Book Centre. Laurie Stein graduated in 1985 from the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, now OCADU, after receiving her BA in Economics at Western U and graduating with a degree in CLASSICAL ANIMATION from Sheridan College in Oakville. Since then, she has been illustrating freelance for books, magazines, apps, promotion and advertising. Her clients include Scholastic, Pearson, MKids, Nelson, Readers' Digest, Sick Kids Hospital, and more. She has worked extensively for a world-renowned children's hospital and her work lines the walls and ceilings throughout. Laurie volunteers teaching painting to those living with cancer through the Art for Cancer Foundation. She lives in Toronto with her husband, three kids, and two big dogs.
Reviews (2)
Kirkus Review
Based on a true refugee story, this deep and hopeful book sports colorful, simplified shapes depicting students and their teacher.Stein does not attempt realistic depictions. The children look like jelly beans with limbs, facial features, and hair, and their all-blue teacher is only very slightly more detailed; all are digitally collaged over black-and-white photos of a Western classroom. This surprisingly effective choice allows readers to concentrate on the characters' emotions. One day Ms. Truong asks her students to draw a memory from the places where they were born. A bike, a bowl of rice, children running through tall grassand bricks and kids with crabby faces are some of what the students draw. The children each talk about their drawings and their cultures, things they like, dislike, or miss, and the teacher offers support and consolation when needed. When it is Shahad's turn, she says that the bricks she drew are what inflicted the scar on her face and made her leg look the way it does. Shahad's bubbly illustration does have scars next to her eye and on her knee. As Shahad leaves the classroom that day, Ms. Truong compliments her perfectly braided hair. With continued support, Shahad eventually asks, "Do you think I'm beautiful?" "I think you are spectacularly beautiful," the teacher responds. Beautiful Shahad grows more confident and will pleasantly surprise with similar support to others the following year. Readers will likely infer that Shahad is from Syria or Iraq.This heartening, well-crafted story refreshingly places its emphasis on its protagonist's resilience. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
New York Review of Books Review
WHETHER THEY ARE nostalgic reveries of those who came long ago to this nation of immigrants, or the brutal nightmares of worldwide millions fleeing war, violence and persecution today, memories of migration matter. Telling these stories seems more important than ever - even, and some might say especially, to children. A wave of picture books has arrived to help with this difficult task. THE DAY WAR CAME (CANDLEWICK PRESS, 32 pp.; ages s ?? 8), Nicola Davies's poetic response to the impact of governmental refugee policies - first published in 2016 on The Guardian's website - has now been turned into a picture book, with colored pencil and watercolor illustrations by Rebecca Cobb. After a serene opening featuring a happy little girl at home and school, war arrives with shocking suddenness; gray smoke and ash fill the pristine white pages. "War took everything. War took everyone," Davies writes. Fleeing with others to physical safety, the child, tainted by her refugee status, is rejected repeatedly. Finally, while she is curled into the corner of a dark page in a vivid vision of despair, other children come to nudge her out of hopelessness, "pushing back the war with every step." Davies's powerful words are sensitively represented by Cobb in simple child-centered illustrations, making this an accessible book for those young readers ready to engage with this difficult topic. MEMORY IS WHAT maintains hope in marwan 'S JOURNEY (MINEDITION,36PP.; AGES S TO 7), which was written by Patricia de Arias, illustrated by Laura Borras and first published in Chile in 2016. Young readers are dropped directly into a young boy's trek away from his unnamed war-torn homeland: "I take giant steps even though I'm small. One, two, three ... crossing the desert." A photograph of his mother generates happy remembrances for Marwan, helping him to keep going through the barren landscape to safety. The evocative and lyrical text is brought to life through Borras's ink-and-watercolor illustrations, the brown desert of the boy's present contrasting with the colorful images of his past. By the end, having reached safety, the optimistic Marwan dreams of returning home to a place where "the night never never never goes so dark again," one filled with splendid treelike rays of sunlight. IN CAMILLE ANDROS and Julie Morstad's THE DRESS AND THE GIRL (ABRAMS, 40 PP.; ages 4 to 8) an item of clothing becomes a connection between old and new. Lovingly made by a Greek mother, the dress is worn by her daughter on a voluntary migration, one filled with hope "for something singular, stunning or sensational. For something extraordinary." Welcomed by the Statue of Liberty, the family disembarks in early-20th-century New York, and the dress is misplaced. After years traveling the world, the garment reunites with its original owner, now perfect for her daughter. Andros's words are well matched with Morstad's evocative artwork, conjuring a gentle, lyrical version of what used to be the dominant American immigration story. FOR ALFREDO ALVA, the recollection of his arduous childhood journey from his central Mexican home village to Texas is something he wants others to know about, too. In LA FRONTERA: EL VIAJE CON PAPA: MY JOURNEY WITH PAPA (BAREFOOT BOOKS, 48 PP., $17.99; ages 4 to 8), written with Deborah Mills, he tells of a difficult and frightening trip with his father, one that includes hunger, thirst, exhaustion and fear of discovery. Told in side-by-side Spanish and English text, Alva's story is brought to life by Claudia Navarro's vivid acrylic, graphite and digital collages and given broader context with several pages of information on borders and immigration after the main story. When President Reagan offers amnesty to undocumented migrants of the time, the boy and his father gain citizenship and the rest of the family is able to come to America. Sadly, children and their parents making the same journey today do not have this opportunity. SOME MIGRATION EXPERIENCES are better forgotten. In SPECTACULARLY BEAUTIFUL (POW! kids, 32 pp.; ages 3 T07), written by Lisa Lucas, a Canadian schoolteacher, and illustrated by Laurie Stein, schoolchildren are asked to remember their birthplaces. Some draw favorite foods, happy activities with friends, and special family gifts while Shahad grimly centers hers on "the bricks that made my eyes look like this ... and my leg ... like this." Daily compliments from the teacher, starting with the little girl's yellow hair ribbons, bring tiny smiles that become beams of happiness when the adult says with enormous conviction: "I think you are spectacularly beautiful!" Stein's illustrations - black-and-white photographs of the classroom, school and nearby areas, populated with cartoon images done with the simplest of lines and filled in with flat colors (two tiny crosshatched scars on face and leg are all that differentiate Shahad) - effectively bring out Lucas's poignant parable. RECOVERY FROM DIFFICULT MEMORIES IS also at the heart of Francesca Sanna's me AND MY FEAR (FLYING EYE, 40 PP.; AGES 3 T07). "I've always had a secret," begins the child protagonist, "a tiny friend called Fear." At first, Fear - represented as a small white cuddly creature along the lines of a stuffed animal - helps her tackle such familiar childhood situations as monsters under the bed, but then the tone shifts as we learn that "since we came to this new country, Fear isn't so little anymore." Indeed, the creature gets bigger and bigger as the child copes with the trials of a new place, language and people. But then, a peer reaches out, wanting to play, and is able to show his own Fear. With its warm palette and gentle scenes of the worried child being comforted, this book could function as a sequel to Sanna's astounding debut picture book, "The Journey," which recounted a family's dangerous flight from their home in a war zone. Sanna provides an empathetic exploration of the adjustment to a new land that all migrants experience. SOME BOOKS EXIST to answer questions. These, with their heart-wrenching moments and striking imagery, are certain to provoke questions, especially for young readers unfamiliar with the harsh realities of today's refugees and migrants. What happened to the little girl's family? Why did it take so long for Alfredo to see the rest of his family again? Where is Marwan's mother? Why does Shahad have scars? Who is doing this to them? And - most frightening of all - could this happen to me? Because of this, these are not books for children to read on their own. They should experience them with caring adults who are ready to answer their questions and support them as they learn more about some of the world's darker truths. MONICA EDINGER, a fourth-grade teacher in New York City, is the author of "Africa Is My Home: A Child of the Amistad." She blogs at Educating Alice.
