Light for All
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A lyrical and unifying picture book that “will inspire young readers” and “magnificently showcases the immigrant experience” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) in America from Newbery Honoree Margarita Engle and award-winning illustrator Raúl Colón.
Discover the myriad contributions that all immigrants have made as they come to join family or start their own lives together in a new country they call home. Coming with their hopes, dreams, and determination, generations of immigrants have made the fabric of this country diverse, vivid, and welcoming.
This vibrant and timely celebration demonstrates the thousands of immigrants who built America and the importance of having acceptance and light for everyone.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The creators pay tribute to the torch held high by the Statue of Liberty, and to new arrivals on America's shores who respond to its call: "The powerful light/ of a mighty lamp/ shines/ for all!" The statue is shown against the blue of the ocean beyond, giving a sense of its scale and grandeur, while Engle (A Song of Frutas) writes that "the promise of jobs/ brings talented doctors, scientists,/ artists, singers, students, cooks...." Colón (Imagine!) centers children of varying skin tones and religions through-out: a cued-Black singer shares sheet music with a light-tan-skinned child, accompanied by a cued–East Asian clarinetist, while another tan-skinned child paints their portrait. Engle acknowledges some of the U.S.'s injustices: "a history/ that began with cruel invasions,/ stealing land from Native people,/ and bringing enslaved captives/ all the way from Africa." The book occasionally elides nuance in favor of mythologizing America ("Gentler waves of arrival followed,/ with newcomers welcomed"), but the grainy, organic quality of Colón's spreads, his luminous palette, and the grace he gives to the forms and figures warm the pages of this call to conscience. Ages 4–8.
