My five-year-old child’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (See my kids’ rating system here.)
My thoughts: What a lovely story! I enjoyed the vivid illustrations. (The ice cream stand’s name made me smile!) The story focuses on extended family connections and traditions. But I also used this book to talk about the summer season with my young child, and I used it as a springboard to a few scientific “experiments”: making homemade ice cream. (My child asked for an ice cream maker ball for his birthday because of this story.)
The author Rajani LaRocca was born in India but raised in Kentucky. (My husband and I celebrate and seek out diversity in our family, and I wholeheartedly agree with the author’s assertion that diversity cultivates empathy and that empathy makes the world a better place.) She attended Harvard and has practiced medicine in Boston for a couple of decades. She has written quite a few books in her “spare time”! She calls herself an “omnivorous” writer and reader. (As soon as we looked up her bio and saw the term “omnivorous reader,” I adopted it to refer to my own daughter, who reads books, dictionaries, and cereal boxes, all with the same fervor.) You can read more about the author on her web site. (Here’s the link.) (Note: I try to check out the biography of every author whose books we read because their story is as important to their books as Charles Dickens’ background was to his novels.)
I will look for more books by Rajani LaRocca. I highly recommend this book.
Never stop reading,
Erin
Leave a comment