By Michael Genhart, PhD
The illustrations in this wordless book show colorful people in an urban setting going about their days, and in their midst – a grey, elderly woman, wrapped in heavy clothes, pushing a cart of her belongings. No one notices her, except a child who sees her, over and over, as she is ignored, shamed, chased away, questioned by police. But the child does more than see. As winter’s cold bares down, he and his parents bring blankets and friendship. Young ones DO notice and look to their adults for information and understanding about things they don’t understand, like homelessness. This is the perfect book to create conversations with children, and there is an excellent section in the back of the book to help adults do just that.
The video for our featured book is brought to you Bettina Boles. She shares a lot of wonderful ideas for facilitating conversations with children as you share this book.
Ask your local library to purchase a copy.
Buy it from bookshop.org, or support your local independent Book Dealer.