A Kid Is a Kid Is a Kid
About this ebook
Being the new kid is hard, a child in the school playground tells us. I can think of better things to ask than if I’m a boy or a girl. Another child comes along and says she gets asked why she always has her nose in a book. Someone else gets asked where they come from.
One after another, children share the questions they’re tired of being asked again and again — as opposed to what they believe are the most important or interesting things about themselves. As they move around the playground, picking up new friends along the way, there is a feeling of understanding and acceptance among them. And in the end, the new kid comes up with the question they would definitely all like to hear: “Hey kid, want to play?”
Sara O’Leary’s thoughtful text and Qin Leng’s expressive illustrations tell a story about children who are all different, all themselves, all just kids.
Key Text Features
dialogue
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.6
Identify who is telling the story at various points in a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.7
Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.1
Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.6
Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.7
Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.1
Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.7
Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting)
About the author
SARA O'LEARY, an author of books for children and adults, has won the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People. Her notable picture books include A Family Is a Family Is a Family (USBBY Outstanding International Books) and A Kid Is a Kid Is a Kid (TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award finalist), both illustrated by Qin Leng, and The Little Book of the Little Brontës, illustrated by Briony May Smith, praised by SLJ for its “exquisitely crafted text.” Sara lives in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia.
QIN LENG is a highly acclaimed illustrator and author of picture books and graphic novels. Her work appears in the award-winning Who We Are series by Sara O’Leary; Trèfle by Nadine Robert (Governor General Award); Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin by Chieri Uegaki (APALA Award, Governor General’s Award finalist); and When I Found Grandma by Saumiya Balasubramaniam (Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award finalist); among others. Qin has written and illustrated I Am Small and Fantastic Lou: Little Comics from Real Life. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.
