Mom and Me Reviews: I Am Every Good Thing

First Line: “I am/ a nonstop ball of energy.”

Summary: This book puts on display a set of inspiring poetry about a group of young black boys. It speaks of their virtues, and insinuates their innocence, kindness, and goodness. Each page reads like its own poem, but they flow together to form a larger piece.

Ratings:

                Maggie: 5 stars (2 – 4 stars after it made her emotional)

                Conor: 5 stars for page 23; 0 cares of all other pages

                Mama Lala: 5 stars

Their Thoughts: Maggie says, “Its like when you go home after a bad day, and you just sit on your bed… and your mom brings a blanket and just holds you. It feels good. Like that.”

Conor: My assumption of what he would say, “the picture on page 24 is pretty! I want to touch it!”

My Thoughts: This book was beautiful and inspirational. It can be (and should be) read both with and without the context of race. These statements and lyrics should be felt by all young people. That said, this book provided an excellent opportunity to discuss race and the issues surrounding race at this time.

I should note, Maggie said this was a 5 star book before I had this conversation with her. After I provided the context of the dedication page, she became emotional. I told her about Trayvon Matin, who was still a child when he’d been attacked. I told her he was about the same age as one of her cousins. This made the tears flow (which made her star count drop).

I explained to her that these conversations are sad and uncomfortable, but important to have.

Happy Reading our friends,

Mama Lala, Maggie, & Conor