From The Horn Book, where it was the review of the week:
"...Naomi Shihab Nye offers an eloquent poem about her Arab American dad, whose open friendliness made him 'Facebook before it existed.' David Yoo, Debbie Rigaud, Varian Johnson, and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich also contribute stories to this noteworthy anthology, which robustly proves Perkins’ assertion that 'funny is powerful.'”
From ALA Booklist:
"...David Yoo’s excellent 'Becoming Henry Lee' is the one that will probably elicit the most laughs. But all invite sometimes rueful smiles or chuckles of recognition. And all demonstrate that in the specific we find the universal, and that borders are meant to be breached."
From Publisher's Weekly:
"...will leave readers thinking about the ways that humor can be a survival tool in a world that tends to put people in boxes."
The book is a Junior Library Guild selection. Yippee!
Also, The Horn Book asked me five questions about the anthology, and the esteemed organization Children's Book Council showed their support.
Here's the audio version from Brilliance. Watch for a series of blog posts featuring the contributors to the anthology, pictured below:
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| Top Row: Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Greg Neri, Debbie Rigaud, Gene Yang, Naomi Shihab Nye Bottom Row: Me, Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, Varian Johnson, Francisco X. Store, David Yoo |
Exciting times, friends. In case you're curious, here are my three "ground rules" when it comes to the intersection of race and comedy, explored further in the introduction to the anthology:
1. Poke fun at the powerful, not the weak.
2. Build affection for the “other” instead of alienating us from somebody different.
3. Be self-deprecatory.
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