Tag: Diverse Characters

Book Review: Three BIPoC Children Books

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Today’s Book Review blog is a little different. I am recommended three non-fiction children books by BIPoC authors. Informative, innovative artwork, and fun, children non-fiction books give one time to read non-fiction, becoming informed on history and science. I highly recommend working your way through the non-fiction children section of your local library. Added bonus is picking up materials on BIPoC history, artists, and authors.

Today’s books are:

The Girl Who Heard the Music: How One Pianist and 85,000 Bottles and Cans Brought New Hope to an Island words by Marni Fogelson with Mahani Teave and pictures by Marta Álvarez Miguéns

One Wish: Fatima al-Fihri and the World’s Oldest University by M.O. Yuksel (Author) and Mariam Quraishi (Illustrator)

Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré by Anika Aldamuy Denise (author) and Paola Escobar (Illustrator)

 

Amazon Cover

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON FOR The Girl Who Heard the Music

Imagine living on a tiny island more than a thousand miles from any other inhabited place! That’s where a girl named Mahani lived―on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island. Mahani grew up taking music lessons on the island’s only piano. She had the talent to become a great pianist, but pursuing that dream meant leaving the home she loved.

As Mahani toured the world as an acclaimed concert pianist, Rapa Nui stayed close to her heart. She knew the island struggled with problems like ocean trash and wondered how she could help. So she returned to Rapa Nui with a new dream―to build a music school! The unique building is constructed with recycled trash and has solar panels and a food garden. Now Mahani is helping build a more sustainable future for her island home―where the music continues.

The perfect choice for parents looking for:

  • Inspiring nonfiction about women making a difference
  • Stories about sustainability and saving the environment
  • Kids STEAM books.

MY REVIEW FOR The Girl Who Heard the Music

Do you have a young musician in your home? This non-fiction autobiographical children’s book tells the story of Mahani Teave (who co-authored this book with children’s book author Marni Fogelson, illustrated by Marta Alvarez Miguens).

The line that got me was “In the teacher’s living room, Mahani practiced the notes…until one day, CLICK!” I have seen that happen when a child is learning to read. And it is true for anyone who has found their passion, be it sports, music, painting, or embroidery. At some point something just clicks, and this, this is your love! It might even be Legos or gardening.

The pictures are beautiful, making it easy to fall in love with Rapa Nui (Easter Island). The book ends with two pages of facts, making this book a great choice for home schooling on a variety of subjects from how the Pacific islands were settled, to different languages, the the Moai (the Easter Island heads), to ecology, and social planning.

Amazon Cover

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON FOR One Wish

Fatima had one wish . . .

Fatima al-Fihri loved to learn. She wanted to know everything, like how birds flew, why the sky was blue, and how flowers grew. But more than anything, she wanted a school for all, where anyone could study and become whatever they wanted, like teachers, scientists, and doctors.

As she grew older, Fatima carried her one wish inside her, through good times and bad. Fueled by her faith and her determination, she worked hard to make her one wish come true. For over a thousand years, Fatima’s one wish—her school—served students and scholars from around the globe, and it continues to do so today!

With lyrical text by M. O. Yuksel (author of In My Mosque) and stunning illustrations by Mariam Quraishi, this true-life portrait of an extraordinary Muslim woman shows the importance of never giving up on your dreams and how we all have the power to change the world for the better.

MY REVIEW FOR One Wish

The learned are the heirs of the Prophets, and the Prophets do not leave behind gold or silver coins but rather they leave behind knowledge. (Hadith 3641)

Some children crave learning; Fatima was once such child. More than that was a desire to have a place of learning for everyone. Thanks to growing up in a rich family who managed to survive a displacement and a short time as refugees plus a beneficial marriage, she was able to do something beyond wish. She built a university and a community center – one whose history and activities have continued from 859 C.E. to its integration into the modern Moroccan university system. A University impacting history and the world. She built with purpose and the world has benefited.

This biography picture book includes three pages of history and a glossary at the end. The pictures are colorful without being overwhelming.

 

Amazon Cover

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON FOR Planting Stories

An inspiring picture book biography of storyteller, puppeteer, and New York City’s first Puerto Rican librarian, who championed bilingual literature.

When she came to America in 1921, Pura Belpré carried the cuentos folklóricos of her Puerto Rican homeland. Finding a new home at the New York Public Library as a bilingual assistant, she turned her popular retellings into libros and spread story seeds across the land. Today, these seeds have grown into a lush landscape as generations of children and storytellers continue to share her tales and celebrate Pura’s legacy.

Brought to colorful life by Paola Escobar’s elegant and exuberant illustrations and Anika Aldamuy Denise’s lyrical text, this gorgeous book is perfect for the pioneers in your life.

Informative backmatter and suggested further reading included.

A Spanish-language edition, Sembrando historias: Pura Belpré: bibliotecaria y narradora de cuentos, is also available.

MY REVIEW FOR Planting Stories

Some people report things can’t be changed, then you stumble across a story like Pura Belpre who through one simple action following another introduced the Latinx community to the public library system in the 1920s, starting children librarians performing puppet shows, and publishing bi-lingual children books.

This book features many Spanish words mixed in with English. If you are reading this to your children and you have not studied Spanish for some time, you might want to practice before reading it.

The pictures are colorful, show representation and clothes appropriate to the times, and are fun. Paola Escobar does a wonderful job as illustrator.

You can make changes by planting seeds.

Flash: Monsters in the Restaurant

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by shraga kopstein on Unsplash

“Mandatory fry steal.” A dark hand snuck into Tim’s view, where he had been dead staring while eating the free lunch that came with his job, to steal one of the golden shoestring fries. He lifted his eyes to see Kiara slipping into the plastic chair bolted on the other side of his table munching on her stolen treasure. He blinked, studying her dark face. The cuts that had streaked blood down her face had healed overnight, but he could still see the vivid blood pouring from them and hear the words “Run” whispering in the corners of his mind. Her brown eyes, with just a touch of green, so like Mandy’s met his and he broke contact, skidding from her head to her hands and over her clean jeans and button-up blouse.

“You cut your hair.”

Kiara touched her short curls, only a few inches out from her head. “I don’t want to be grabbed that way again.”

“Oh, right.” Tim dropped his eyes to his half-eaten sandwich. “Sorry. I so sorry.”

“You’re not forgiven. I liked my hair.” She knocked her knuckles against the table. “But I’m not here about that.”

“Then why are you where?” he asked as she grabbed another fry.

“To apply for a summer job, duh.” Kiara waved back to where the store’s manager was reading an application.

Tim winced. “Um, maybe not a good idea.”

“Why?” Kiara tilted her head.

For a second, Tim expected to hear beads clatter. Kiara had beads in hair since they were in kindergarten together. Not hearing the clatter was unsettling. Somewhere, deep down, where human terror lived, his core shivered and released poisonous acid out to churn his stomach at the sound’s absence. He whispered, “Well, I mean, he is in a club with my dad.”

“Oh.” Her thick lips turned down. “The one who wears sheets?”

“Yes.” He hissed back.

“Damn it. I didn’t know.” She took two fries and chewed them thoughtfully. “This is the only fast food in walking distance that has been safe. Maybe I can get James’ old moped repaired and hit up one of the places along the other highway.”

“Ain’t nothing there either,” Tim reported, tapping his phone where it laid beside the paper wrapping to check the time and then he took a big bite out of what was left of his sandwich. Talking around the food, he said, “Mandy and Granger looked. Luis, from track, asked if I wanted to help him with the landscaping business his father runs, but I’m already locked in here. With Vinny as the store manager now, and his relationship with my dad, I’m guaranteed to be shift manager before the end of the month. Maybe you could check with Luis. You like plants and shit, right?”

“Thanks, I’ll text him.” Kiara leaned back. “I still got his number from that science project.”

“The ancestry one?” He slurped down some soda. “That one was brutal.”

“Not really, Mr. D let you off the hook if you hit a dead wall, like, say, being brought over on a boat unwillingly.”

“You nig–, blacks get all the–” Tim broke off what he was about to say. “I guess that isn’t a give-me like I thought.”

“Nah. It did help that the Old Dock plantation kept really good records. Mandy and I had about seventy years given to us.” Kiara shrugged, reached for the cooling fries but stopped midway. The shoestrings were only good hot. “Mom’s side, though, that was a mess. Half of them had been sold to the Louisiana sugar plantations without records.”

“That seems…stupid? I mean, and pardon the wording, livestock lines are important.”

“Unless you just bought animals to work them to death. The sugar plantations were where you sent trouble to die. Tobacco and cotton had the breeding couples.”

“Why…” clearing his throat Tim continued, “do you even stay around here? Why not move north? It’s got to hurt to see the Docks every time you go outside of town.”

“We have family buried here. When you’ve been cut off from everything else, what little you got is important.”

Tim tapped his phone again. “Five minutes. Been nice seeing ya—”

“One other thing.” Kiara interrupted.

Blanching, Tim asked, “What?”

“What are you going to tell the po-po when they come a’knockin’?”

Timmy crushed the paper wrapper and fry sleeve together in his fists. “Police?” His voice whispered, but scraped high.

“Your friends are missing. Sure, no one is asking questions yet since it’s still the weekend and they could be hitting Myrtle Beach. But Monday or Tuesday, people will start asking where they are and where they were last seen, and you know Office Baumgardner is going to throw us under the bus once the video shows y’all chasing me into the woods.”

“What video?”

“The video, you know, the entrance and around the school.”

Timmy frowned. “There isn’t anything like that.”

Kiara rolled her eyes. “There is exactly stuff like that.”

He snorted in laughter. “Of course there isn’t, they would have caught us spraying the school when we were Juniors.”

“You are white and children from the club. Welcome to your privilege.” Shaking her head, she said, “Really, how do you survive? Anyway, Office ‘call-me-Kenny’ Bumgardner is not going to take the fall for three missing youths. So what are you going to say?”

“Um, what are you going to say?”

“That I ran into the woods behind the school and hid until I saw parents dropping kids off and then returned to the school. You were there and said, ‘next time we’ll catch you’. And then I went inside. Sounds good?”

“Right, I forgot we had talked.”

“So how should our stories line up.”

“Two minutes.” Vinny shouted.

“Be right there.” Tim shouted back. “Okay, I chased you into the woods but we couldn’t find you. Chuck and Mandy started making out like normal, so I went back to the school to wait and you came out. I said something stupid, I don’t remember, to prank you. Don’t know what happened to Granger. He was determined to find you. I had work, so I walked home because who knows how long Chuck and Mandy were going to neck. Damn, it feels wrong to lie about it.”

“Why?” Kiara looked confused. “They threatened to kill you too.”

“They were kidding.” He put the trash into the bin. “They did that all the time.”

Kiara froze a moment, before she gently touched his shoulder. “Tim, people don’t threaten people they love. They were not your friends, just people you grew up with.”

“That…” He shook his head. “Um, are…are they, okay?”

“They’re dead.” Kiara stated flatly.

“No, I mean, are they zombies or ghosts or whatever… Are they going to be angry…” He trailed off before whispering, “I had nightmares.”

“Oh, that. They have completely moved on. I went back last night and cleaned up everything and made sure they aren’t going to hang around and cause more trouble.” Kiara shouldered her purse more securely. “They are wherever they are supposed to be. No lingering pain on this plane.”

“Thirty seconds!”

“Got to go.”

Tim clocked in with two seconds to spare and washed his hands before joining Vinny at the front and letting the other worker go on their late Sunday lunch/dinner break.

“What are you doing talking to that cun…girl?” Vinny corrected himself mid-word since the other worker that day was female while Tim counted the till under the supervisor’s watchful eyes.

“We go to school together.” Tim shrugged, keeping his eyes down. “She was just asking what are the chances of getting this job.”

“What did you say?”

“That we were full up.” Tim glanced at the twenty-year-old before returning to the money count. “That okay?”

“Sounds great.” Vinny picked up the application and ripped it in half, put the pieces together and ripped it into quarters and dropped it in the trash. “Don’t need her type around here. But, word of advice from a friend, don’t go being nice to the niggers. It will get you into trouble, no matter who your daddy is.”

(words 1,361; first published 6/28/2026)

Ordinary Monsters series

One) Monsters in the closet (5/10/2026)
Two) Monsters in the school (5/24/2026)
Three) Monsters in the Restaurant (6/28/2026)

Other Cool Blogs: Children Non-Fiction Recommendations

Erin Penn Leave a comment


Amazon Cover

Are you looking for children and YA books? Last year I recommended the blog booksyalove.com (May 22, 2025)  for a bunch of YA recommendation from a librarian. I have found another librarian site, this time for children and I love the mix of diverse reads among the options. For the A-to-Z challenge in 2025, Christina Dankert searched out Nonfiction picture books and about half of the 37 books she covered would qualify as diverse reads – and she started strong with “A is for Activist.”

Reading is powerful. Seeing your history unfold in pictures can be lifechanging. Whether Ho’onani Hula Warrior or Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom, a budding scientific dancer will have something new to learn (and maybe the parent as well). The full list of links for the books covered in the challenge can be found in the “A to Z Blog Challenge Reflection 2025” (cut and paste option: https://christinadankert.com/2025/05/03/a-to-z-blog-challenge-reflection-2025/ ). She also covered books for the 2024 challenge.

The extra wonderful thing about a librarian recommending books is it is highly likely the book is available in your local library. I have paged through her 37 recommendations and only one of the ones I was interested in reading wasn’t available through my local library; the other dozen or so have been added to my TBR pile. Yes, they are children books but they will widen my knowledge (non-fiction) without a big time commitment. If you follow me over on GoodReads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4918831.Erin_Penn) or StoryGraph (https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/erin_penn), you should see some children picture book reviews pop up throughout the year.

Book Review (SERIES): Seashell Key

Erin Penn Leave a comment

It is your Lucky Day to live through The Monster Storm at Seashell Key, an tourist island where the children of the people who work there explore their world and attend school. This chapter book series containing diversity and good pictures, peaks with the second book of the series. I read all of these through the local library system.

Seashell Key Series by Lourdes Heuer (author) and Lynnor Bontigao (illustrator)

Book 1: Seashell Key
Book 2: The Monster Storm
Book 3: The Lucky Day

Amazon Cover

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for SEASHELL KEY

Seashell Key is the first in author Lourdes Heuer and award-winning illustrator Lynnor Bontigao’s young chapter book series―perfect for fans of Princess in Black and Mercy Watson, about a diverse community of kids living in a beautiful seaside town!

Welcome to Seashell Key! Summer is here, and the children of this cozy coastal town are ready to welcome visitors to their little oasis. There’s Mateo, who runs his little kite-making business, Sail and Soar, alongside his dad’s Sky and Sea store; Sasha and Sophia, who comb the seashore next to their mother’s sandwich stand; and Eli, Ezra, and Elana, who live in the cozy-but-cramped lighthouse and entertain passing tourists with tall tales.

Filled with a vibrant cast and lots of summery fun, this is the start of an exciting chapter book series.

MY REVIEW for SEASHELL KEY

A pleasant child book with a mix of female and male characters (in equal number for the children!).

Things that could have been better:
(1) The female and male division of “traditional” to be stronger than it is. Mateo’s (single?) father run a retail shop and flies a plane; Sasha & Sophia’s (single?) mother owns a lunch counter and the kids also eat at Mrs. Cerise’s fruit stand. So small business owners, but split along gender lines for “traditional” tasks of food preparation. (Parent genders match their children.)
(2) Children interests are also gender-coded. Mateo makes kits, Sasha draws pictures, Sophia dances-writes poetry-and-sings, Eli is interested in investigation, Ezra in science fiction, and (yay for breaking tradition) Elana in digging-and-archeology.
(3) The very small discouragement of school and keeping things clean. “Sometimes she suggests they study. Sometimes she suggests they clean. These are both terrible, terrible suggestions.” But the person reacting is the younger sister who is a disorganized artistic type. With parent supervision of a child reading this section, the parent can point out Sasha is an organized person and Sophia is a disorganized person, but both are able to function and get things done is fine, thereby mitigating the school bashing. I get tired of the constant school bashing in children’s books. We don’t have to say it is great, but nor do we need to disparage it. School, like work, is a fact of life. It has good and bad.

Things that are great:
1) Seeing tourists show up again and again throughout the book. Parents can work with children to take apart the pictures. The illustrator, Lynnor Bontigao, has done an amazing job.
2) All the different animals Sasha draws.
3) All the different kites Mateo makes.
4) The celebration of imagination of all the children.
(Homeschoolers and summer-vacationers can definitely use any of the four stories within this book as a jumping point for different activities.)

Each of the four stories/”acts” has a story arc of three chapters. Introduction of the characters, problem/want to solve, and the action of solving it. The children each come up with their own solutions to their need-to-explore/fight-the-boredom at the start of summer.

The bedrock for this series is community, in particular the tourist community of Seashell Key and the children of the year-round residents.

Plus a star for diversity. Checked out from the local library.

 

Amazon Cover

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE MONSTER STORM

The Monster Storm is the second book in author Lourdes Heuer and award-winning illustrator Lynnor Bontigao’s young chapter book series Seashell Key―perfect for fans of Princess in Black and Mercy Watson―about a diverse community of kids living in a beautiful seaside town!

It’s fall on the island of Seashell Key! A monster storm is on the horizon, but that won’t stop Mateo from entering the fall festival competitions, or Sophia and Sasha from showing off their swimming skills. When the storm finally hits, Eli, Ezra, and Elana gather around the flashlight to tell spooky stories about the monster of Seashell Key―that is if they can agree on what the monster actually is! When the storm finally passes, the gang has to work together to find Pixie the dog―hopefully before the monster of Seashell Key finds her!

Filled with a vibrant cast and lots of fall fun, this is a great addition to an exciting new chapter book series.

MY REVIEW for THE MONSTER STORM

Wow, the second of the series is a step above for children’s books.

Again, amazing illustrations by Lynnor Bontigao. The chapter where Eli, Ezra, and Elana ride out the storm in the lighthouse by telling spooky stories have all three children in the pictures of the stories. Each picture has so many hidden details, starting with the kites of the first page, no doubt made by Mateo. Going through the pictures with a new reader will be an adventure in-and-of-itself.

The format is the same as the first book of the series – this time the first day of fall instead of the first day of summer for Seashell Key. Instead of tourists in the background, we have the building of a storm and dealing with the day after. Four Acts, each of the first three concentrating on one family group/child then finally collecting them all for a final adventure. Each act has three chapters.

With the introductions completed in the first book, this time we dive right into the stories. Mateo is a maker, so be prepared to have the child-reader want to emulate his creations from a banana-cheese-sour-cream pie to the no-scarecow. Each child we previously met personality shines through during the competition. Sasha embrace of reality to Sophia’s love of imagination; these two are so clearly different from each other, but their sibling bond still comes through. Elana’s history and archelogy interest makes the obvious choice of a ghost for the costume contest.

The final act, where the beat of the storytelling from the “scary” stories being repeated when they discover the green water monster is perfect. (If you like to watch for great storytelling by an author.)

Also, if you are a storyteller and want to see how it is done, this is a excellent book to pick apart for character building and connecting groups of characters together. I have read several “adult” books where every scene is isolated and the characters in one scene is not connected to the next, aside from the main character – Seashell Key seamlessly has the isolated groups come together. If you are a person who loves character building, this series is doing it well.

Library book.

 

Amazon Cover

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON for THE LUCKY DAY

The Lucky Day is the third book from author Lourdes Heuer and award-winning illustrator Lynnor Bontigao’s young chapter-book series—perfect for fans of Princess in Black and Mercy Watson—about the adventures of a diverse community of kids living in a beautiful seaside town.

It’s the last day of school before spring break, but there’s still so much to do! Mateo is on a mission to catch a leprechaun, and Sasha and Sophia can’t wait to work on their school garden. Elena just wants to read about dinosaurs, but when she finds a secret map in her textbook, she’ll need all her friends to help her find the treasure of Seashell Key—and make a treasure map of their own!

Filled with a vibrant cast and lots of spring fun, this is a great addition to an exciting new chapter book series.

MY REVIEW for THE LUCKY DAY

I absolutely adored the second book of this series. This third book returns to one of my ongoing objections of children’s book: the maligning of school.
“Tomorrow is the start of spring break. But today is a school day. Bad luck!”

Then the day goes on to be a wonderful day of school, the first day of spring.

Illustrations by Lynnor Bontigao continue to support the narrative, while also providing interaction for young readers who may still be more interested in the pictures than in reading. The structure of four acts persists, though this time the children are separated by age group as appropriate for school. Mateo and Eli are first in Math class, and like the previous first acts of the book series, Mateo makes things. Sasha, Sophia, and Ezra are together in Science class; all three bringing their unique energies to a gardening project. Elena makes friends with a new kid in language arts. And the fourth act, everyone is together in art class and then after-school.

The series has lots of cool ideas of projects to do with a homeschooler or active child of the kindergarten through third grade age. The children in the narrative aren’t always perfect angels, but they are always exploring, figuring out things to do, and making things happen. There is agency here. There is diversity in the tourist town the children live in, both in the adults and in the children.

Checked out from the library.

Book Review: Strange Fruit

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Amazon Cover

Strange Fruit, Volume I: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History by Joel Christian Gill

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

Strange Fruit Volume I is a collection of stories from early African American history that represent the oddity of success in the face of great adversity. Each of the nine illustrated chapters chronicles an uncelebrated African American hero or event. From the adventures of lawman Bass Reeves, to Henry “Box” Brown’s daring escape from slavery.

 

MY REVIEW

Strange Fruit was a poem written by Abel Meeropol and sung by Billie Holiday. One of the cultural memories of Black American History which white America lacks but needs to become aware of.

Ever read a comic book with a bibliography? Strange Fruits is a graphic novel by Joel Christian Gill about nine tales of black folks (researched and pulled from obscurity). Some of them are traditional hero winning the day, but others like Theophilus Thomas, chess master, ends with questions or heartbreak.

White America cuts tales short so winning leaves a high, a success, an accomplishment – no need to seek further justice as the winning was won. Black tales witness the temporary achievements, but leave no doubt that the system hasn’t been completely fixed. The war isn’t over, and may never be over. Battles need to be fought every generation.

Mr. Gill starts with “Henry ‘Box’ Brown” – an upbeat traditional tale, followed by a glimpse of people overcoming with “Harry ‘Bucky’ Lew” and Richard Potter’s Greatest Illusion. The tales then twist and turn, like your gut when faced with the triumph and question of “Theophilus Thompson” and the complete destructive heartbreak of “The Shame” and “The Noyes Academy.” The creator of the graphic novels returns to the triumphs and questions with Marshall Taylor and Spottswood Rice. And finally Bass Reeves, another hero traditional tale, but ends with giving a hint of appropriation. – It’s not enough to outlaw reading and writing, and destroying communities and education systems, Jim Crow and his ilk need to take the few stories saved and make them their own. It’s time to claim the tales back.

A great series of stories shaped together into a single, satisfying narrative.