![]() ![]() ![]() This book should generate lots of conversations and there is much for kids to discover and talk about long after the first day of school is over.Īll Are Welcome, written by Alexandra Penfold and illustrated by Suzanne Kaufman, is a book about a school that celebrates diversity. But wait, there's more: the back end paper shows the kids and their parents/caregivers leaving school at the end of the day, and if you take off the dust jacket, you will see each child up close and personal. The mixed-media illustrations are as bright and happy as the children and adults they depict. The story is told in a three line rhyme that never falters and always end in the fourth line"All are welcome here" and no, it won't take kids long to begin chiming in on that line. School here becomes what school should be everywhere: "We're part of a community/Our strength is our diversity/A shelter from adversity/All are welcome here." Besides cultural diversity, there is a blind student and one on a wheelchair, and there are a variety of families: single parents, moms and dads, two moms, two dads, and mixed race parents. ![]() Even their lunches reflect their heritage and who they are. ![]() Inside, kids spend their day getting to know each other and learning about their different cultural backgrounds through music, art, and stories. It's the first day of school and the endpapers of this lovely book show a large group of wonderfully diverse kids and their parents/caregivers walking to a school with a big "All Are Welcome" banner across the entrance. ![]()
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