Book Review: Just Like Queen Esther

 

Atara is a young girl who wears a crown. One night before bed, her mom reads her a book about a special queen in history, Queen Esther. Queen Esther was a Jewish woman in a time when Jews were in captivity and met with hostility. The story of Esther can be found in the Bible. After Atara hears the story, she is mesmerized by Esther's life. Her school puts on a play based on the Jewish holiday of Purim through this, Atara will soon learn a lot about herself in this engaging children's story.

I read this book to my 11-year-old daughter, who was already familiar with the book of Esther who was already familiar with the book of Esther in the Bible, and she enjoyed it. She thought the illustrations were nice, and the story held her attention. She gave this book a sign of approval. This book is a nice introduction to Purim and the story of Esther. Young girls can relate to Atara and Queen Esther.
Thank you, NetGalley, for this arc.

Book Review: Black Joy by Charnaie Gordon

 

Black Joy is an engaging and positive children's book geared toward African-American children and is also great for children of other races. This book explains the origin of Black Love Day, which was instituted in 1993 and is celebrated on February 13th.  Black Joy also tells children what love truly entails and how to love themselves. The illustrations in this book are beautiful and show the positivity of an African-American community stemming from a love mural created by a young boy named Jaden.