Where?

Collins, making a picture book debut with this work that began as a slam poem, employs energetic prose, giving voice to a child, portrayed with brown skin and curly hair, explaining how they respond when asked, "Where are you from?" Beginning with a joke ("Well, when a mother and father love each other very much...") and a question ("What can I possibly say/ to make my answer/ seem slightly okay?"), the narrative soon delves into a more expansive mode. Answers range from "the void and cosmic dust/ around our solar system" to "the redwood trees,/ their roots sunk deep into the ground." Recognizing the basis of the question, the speaker ponders, "Because what they mean to ask me that is,/ 'Why is your skin that color?/ Why does your hair look like that?'// They don't care that my molecules were made/ in the same place as theirs." Digital illustrations by Lesnie (A Soldier, a Dog and a Boy) depict the child traveling across various realistic and fantastical landscapes, accompanying responses that build to a final, powerful response: "I'm from the same place/ that you are.// So no need to ask again." Creators' notes conclude. Ages 4--8. (Aug.)

A child "straight from the center of the universe" faces a small-minded world. The dark-skinned young narrator, wearing a striped woolen hat, fields the same question over and over: "Where are you from?" Words in different typefaces surround the child on the opening spread, and the protagonist pulls on the strings on the hat, seemingly for protection. The child wonders, "How am I supposed to respond?" Tumbling through a door in the clouds into a vast galaxy, the child declares, "I'm from the interiors of collapsing stars" and "the iridescent glow of a nebula." The protagonist comes from the moons of Saturn and Pluto, from redwood trees and ocean tides, from voyagers and artists. The child continues even as others persist with the same question, which really means, "Why is your skin that color?" and "Why does your hair look like that?" But the child counters: "You see skin and I see supernovas." Lesnie's dazzlingly vivid illustrations immerse the child in a rich imaginative world, depicting lush green trees, rainbow nebulae, and luminous golden lanterns on dark water, in stark contrast to the more muted colors of the child's real, harassed life. Though Collins' reflective text doesn't offer a simple resolution, the child nevertheless has the last, definitive words to settle the issue. An unusual and inventive selection for beginning tough conversations with young readers. (a note from the creators) (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.