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Being a Kid

 My son and I have been re-reading "You Matter," by a young gay man, Christian Robinson.


It's pretty clear that Robinson is a genius, and this book should be a first memorable solo effort among *many* great solo efforts. That's my hope. I've written about the book before, but it's worth revisiting.

"You Matter" emerged in a time of unrest, when Breonna Taylor and George Floyd were erased from the planet. The possibility that no real consequences would ensue, for the killers, seemed overwhelming, inconceivable. So I think Robinson was responding to the world. "If you believe you don't matter, you're wrong. Regardless of your size, regardless of your current level of vulnerability, you matter."

In my teaching career, I was disappointed when certain educators would say: "The child learns about the classroom, first; the child learns about the neighborhood, next; the child learns about the country, eventually, in third grade." This sort of structure seemed satisfying to adults--but not to children. I don't remember thinking, in first grade, "I'm far too little to consider the cosmos." Planets and dinosaurs were much more interesting to me than the layout of my local grocery store.

Robinson understands this--and, like Maria Montessori, he speaks directly to children. His pictures feature a T-Rex, a meteor, a scene of aquatic mammals emerging onto dry land. Additionally, Robinson seems to borrow from Aesop: He empathizes with a tiny creature (a bug, regarded by everyone as "a pest"), and he, Robinson, also recognizes that *large* creatures are secretly vulnerable (a dinosaur, yearning to scratch a bug-bite, discovers that "something you want can be just out of reach").

I'm inspired by Robinson's imagination and his wit. I'm eager to see the follow-up.












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