You Are a Reader! / You Are a Writer!
by April Jones Prince; illus. by Christine Davenier
Primary    Ferguson/Holiday    40 pp.    g
8/21    978-0-8234-4625-4    $18.99

Rhyming text in an upbeat, singsong-y rhythm winds through soft spot art, cheering on new readers and writers in this two-books-in-one picture book. The effective format celebrates becoming a reader on one side and becoming a writer on the flip side. The two stories meet in the middle with a circle of repeating text — “and readers are writers and writers are readers” — to underline the eternal connectedness of the two. Each side of the book mirrors the other in structure, providing strategies, acknowledging challenges, and championing the many ways of being a reader or writer. “Storybooks aren’t quite your speed? / So many other things to read! / Labels, / programs, / comic books. / A recipe that you can cook.” The gently illustrated vignettes give deeper context to the words and depict many different children in a wide variety of situations, ranging from funny to heartwarming. Each child appears twice in the book, once on each side, creating even more stories to imagine within the main story itself.

From the September/October 2021 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.