Everybelly

Written and illustrated by Thao Lam

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-764-3

40 pp.

Ages 3-6

April 2025 

 

When did we learn to judge people based on how they look? When do we learn that bellies are not seen as beautiful or that because someone is different that they don't belong? Young children are often accepting of everyone, until or unless they are taught otherwise. For this child, the people whom she sees at their local pool are a rich mosaic of professions, preferences, and looks, and she appreciates all of them.

From Everybelly, written and illustrated by Thao Lam

Maddie and her mama go down to the community pool to swim. Everybody is there, from Stan and Dan who bake cookies, Vibhuti who is in a band, and Mr. Mendoza who talks to his daughter in Argentina on Sundays. There are artists and shopkeepers, students and the elderly. There are those with a walker or a prosthetic leg, or using a pool lift to move them from their wheelchair into the water. Everyone is there and enjoying the pool in their own way. Some float on inflatables, while others swim, and some just relax poolside. They are different and they are beautiful.

From Everybelly, written and illustrated by Thao Lam

It's obvious that Maddie notes everything and everyone. Whether it be how bellies can be used as tables for phones or drinks, or that bellies can stretch bigger and bigger until they pop like her friend's mom's who's giving her another brother. (Uma wanted a dog.) Maddie knows that there are some who work hard to keep their bellies flat though she likes when her belly is full because her mother works hard to keep them fed. (Maddie thinks about all the foods she would fill her belly with, from jelly beans and gimbap, to gỏi cuốn, and fried chicken.) Every belly is different, supported by bodies that vary in their abilities, their challenges, their attributes, and their clothing and adornments that include scars and tattoos. With all these people, Maddie's world is richer and more colourful.

From Everybelly, written and illustrated by Thao Lam

Everybelly is a tribute to the diversity of people that make our lives fuller. By seeing all the people whom she knows and even those she doesn't, Maddie is learning empathy and an appreciation for a wide variety of cultures, bodies, preferences, and more. She may notice what they look like, such as the size of their bellies, and what they are doing, like breastfeeding, but she accepts them as part of her community. Thao Lam, who both wrote the text and illustrated Everybelly, gives us the words to help see the innocence and openness of Maddie's perspective–like her claim that Mr. Popov was keeping time with his broom on the ceiling as she tap-danced (!)–and her acceptance of her world as full and vibrant. For her, this is the norm, and she relishes it.

From Everybelly, written and illustrated by Thao Lam

But beyond Maddie's words and thoughts, Thao Lam has given the child and her community exuberance via the artwork. Thao Lam's cut-paper collage as seen in earlier books like One Giant Leap and The Paper Boat is even bolder and splashier, giving greater depth and texture to a setting that is basically a pool and poolside. But that setting is all the richer for the people that inhabit the space, even if only temporarily. There are so many different bathing suits, hats, towels, and sandals. They are colourful and patterned. Some like burkinis hide more than others and some leave it all out to be seen. I could spend hours poring through the book, finding details that intrigue, like the heart surgery scar on one gentleman, the pigeons eating spilled popcorn, or the imprint of sunglasses left on a sunburned belly. Thao Lam lets us see this community in all its glorious bodies and lives to appreciate a mother-daughter relationship and a communal appreciation for diversity.

I Would Give You My Tail

Written by Tanya Tagaq

Illustrated by Qavavau Manumie 

Tundra Books

978-1-77488-057-9

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

April 2025

 

What is the secret to happiness? For a child sent to bring his grandmother back to camp to help with the birth of his new sibling, Kalluk finds many answers and from those who enrich his own northern life.

From I Would Give You My Tail, written by Tanya Tagaq, illustrated by Qavavau Manumie

On his journey, Kalluk encounters different animals and natural elements and asks each why they are so happy. The first, a pair of hares, find their happiness in being fast and clever but also from protecting the other. One hare even declares, "I would give you my tail if I could." A babbling brook delights in being cold and clean and enjoying the sensation of running over rocks and giving satisfaction to the fish. With each encounter, including with a mother fox and her pups, the boy feels gratitude for the food provided, the fresh water to be had, and the care and love his own mother had always given him. 

From I Would Give You My Tail, written by Tanya Tagaq, illustrated by Qavavau Manumie

When he fetches his grandmother, Anaanattiaq, they travel together back to camp. Kalluk takes time on their journey to ask his grandmother the same question. The wisdom of her words are not lost on the child.

You get peace from inside. Every day, life gives you choices, and when you make the choice to be a kind person, the goodness inside of you grows.

From I Would Give You My Tail, written by Tanya Tagaq, illustrated by Qavavau Manumie

An encounter with a conspiracy of ravens brings forth a discussion of wisdom and sharing, and ends with an airborne journey, a dialogue with the wind, and a swift delivery of Anaanattiaq and Kalluk to a home with a new infant. Now Kalluk has insight about gratitude and making good choices and more to share with his new baby sister.

From I Would Give You My Tail, written by Tanya Tagaq, illustrated by Qavavau Manumie

I defy anyone not to feel a peacefulness while reading I Would Give You My Tail. It's not as simple a story as it may appear to be. It's loaded with the calm that comes with appreciation for what we have and are given and the relationships we have with others and the natural world. Tanya Tagaq, an Inuk throat singer and author from Nunavut, fills her words with weight, the weight of virtue and relevance, generosity and acknowledgement. Through Kalluk's grasp of the messages he hears from the wind, and the hares, the ravens and the brook, he and the reader vicariously are filled with thankfulness for what is given by family and the environment. And Tanya Tagaq does so without preaching or admonishment. Her message is borne on affection and honour.

 

Qavavau Manumie, an Inuit artist in Kinngait, Nunavut, created the artwork of I Would Give You My Tail with coloured pencil. As such, there is a simplicity in the shapes and colours of the illustrations but there is still a complexity of spirit. From the natural touch of a mother upon her child's head to a boy as he watches and inquires, the art of Qavavau Manumie both emphasizes the familiar and the unique in the way of family and Inuit life, respectively.

 

Perhaps there are messages in I Would Give You My Tail about gratitude and happiness, but I also took away a sense of peace, a sense that there is appreciation for life in the natural world and among the Inuit. There is no need for grand gestures or spectacles of PDA when there is honesty and happiness that comes from doing for others, from being good, from sharing, and even from just having breath and food and water. I Would Give You My Tail gives us more than a sentimental tale of family. It gives us hope that happiness is readily at hand.

The Salt Princess (Everlasting Tales #2)

Retold and illustrated by Anoosha Syed

Translated by Humera Syed

Harper (HarperCollins)

978-0-06-332471-8

40 pp.

Ages 4-8

April 2025 

 

Folktales tell us a lot about a culture and people, yet many have commonalities across cultures and people. The Salt Princess, a story which Anoosha Syed humbly presents as a retelling, but illustrated by her, is one such folktale from Pakistan, told with a unique flair with the message that true happiness comes from being one's self.

From The Salt Princess, retold and illustrated by Anoosha Syed

In the Kingdom of Zammartud, the king had four daughters. Though her older sisters were "as lovely and bright" as their father hoped of his daughters, Amal was less so. Princess Amal loved pranks and making her sisters laugh. But, when her father asked his daughters how they loved him, her sisters compared their love for him to sweets like sugar, honey and sherbet. However, he is not pleased with Princess Amal's answer: "I love you like salt."

From The Salt Princess, retold and illustrated by Anoosha Syed

In a rage at comparing him to something as common as salt, the king banishes Princess Amal. She knows she had misspoken but now she is alone in the woods.

From The Salt Princess, retold and illustrated by Anoosha Syed

She is rescued by Prince Arsalan who hears her story and takes her to his kingdom. He appreciates her spirit and humour and, after a year had passed, he asks her to marry him. But that proposal reminds Amal of the absence of her family and the riff with her father. Being the clever woman she is, Amal devises a plan.

 

Prince Arsalan invites the king to a banquet where he is treated to countless sweet treats. Soon enough he realizes he would appreciate something other than desserts but even those dishes are lacking in flavour. It is only when a cloaked Amal gives him a humble farmer's dish of spinach seasoned with salt that his palate is satisfied. With that, Amal reveals herself and explains her love for him is as pure and valuable as the salt in that dish.

From The Salt Princess, retold and illustrated by Anoosha Syed

The tale in The Salt Princess will seem familiar with other stories in which a child is banished by a father who does not appreciate their self-expression. That parent has to come to realize the virtue and originality of being an individual and to look beyond the obvious. In her retelling, Anoosha Syed, a Pakistani Canadian artist, gives life to a tale she'd heard as a child and blankets it in the colour and culture of her heritage.

 

The story is told in words but also through the glow of Anoosha Syed's artwork. The illustrations begin bright and colourful, playful like Amal's mischievous pranks and spirited nature. But, as her story progresses, taking her into a forest, beautiful as it is, it becomes dark and foreboding. Then when she meets the prince, the artwork becomes comforting in tones of pinks and turquoise. And throughout the story, the artwork is rich in details in both the lushness of the shapes and vibrancy of its colours.

 

As with all folktales which entertain while teaching, The Salt Princess reminds us that perceptions of others may be misconstrued and inappropriately compel us to fit in by being untrue to ourselves. Thankfully, Princess Amal is a clever woman and true to herself and finds a way to prove to her father that her love for him is just as true, even if different.