St. Louis Public Library Book Challenge

This blog is the home of the St. Louis Public Library team for the Missouri Book Challenge. The Missouri Book Challenge is a friendly competition between libraries around the state to see which library can read and blog about the most books each year. At the library level, the St. Louis Public Library book challenge blog is a monthly competition among SLPL staff members and branches. For the official Missouri Book Challenge description see: http://mobookchallenge.blogspot.com/p/about-challenge.h

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Someone New

Someone New by Anne Sibley O’Brien 32 pages

I like the concept of this picture book. It’s the story of three students who are new to their classroom. There are three new students in the school who are from Guatemala, Korea and Somalia. Each teacher assigns the new child a “buddy” to help them navigate their new environment.

I didn’t like that all the children assimilate easily; there is little conflict or an episode of the day not going well. I believe that “Someone New,” is about trying to find common ground. However the message completely overlooked that it’s hard, very hard, to do so.

I was also dismayed when the age range from this book is 5-8 years old and aimed at Kindergarten to Grade 3. It seemed to talk down to that age range

“Someone New” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.