Read Your World is in its 14th year! Valarie Budayr and Mia Wenjen founded this non-profit children’s literacy initiative that shines the spotlight on all of the multicultural diverse books and authors on the market while also working to get those books into the hands of young readers and educators. Every January, Read Your World raises awareness by sending books that have been donated by authors or publishers to reviewers and bloggers who share three diverse books. Just look for #ReadYourWorld on social media. I have been fortunate participate in this program for three years now, and I consider myself very lucky to review Mia’s picture book biography of SimonTam.
We Sing From the Heart: How The Slants® Took Their Fight for Free Speech to the Supreme Court
by Mia Wenjen, Simon Tam (Foreword),
Victor Bizar Gómez (Illustrator)
Storybook Lady
Review
We Sing From the Heart is a fantastic book this gives youngsters a glimpse a fight for free speech, a civil rights battle and the systemic prejudice that still continues in government bureaucracy.
Simon Tam had an all Asian-American band. By naming the rock band “The Slants”, his group were taking ownership of the racial slur and reappropriating it, turning it into a point of pride. Trademarking the name, should have been simple matter. Yet the trademark was denied because the name was deemed racist. He couldn’t fathom the response; how could a word be considered racist when it is being used by the very people that it usually insults. He took his case all the way to the supreme court.
Each spread has a page of text about Tam’s life or the legal battle, coupled with one or two lines of “From the Heart”, the band’s song about the legal battle. The powerful drawings by Victor Bizar Gomez are done primarily in earth tones, giving a gravity to the serious tone of this book. Even the pages are a rich heavy card stock adding actual weight to the story. This beautiful book is as much a coffee table book as a picture book for older children. The book is best for children in the third grade and up. The text provides starting points for discussions about a variety of topics. The afterward points out the pattern of court cases with Asian Americans battling for basic rights. Besides a lesson in social studies, it can also provide a starting point for discussions about the power of words and how context can change them.
Red Comet Press
Publication date : October 15, 2024
Print length : 48 pages
ISBN-13 : 9781636550879
About Mia Wenjen
Photograph by Jerry Russo
Mia Wenjen is a children’s book author. She also writes about diverse children’s books on her blog Pragmatic Mom. Along with author and blogger Valarie Budayr, she co-founded the Read Your World nonprofit organization which promotes diverse children’s literature.
I received a print copy of this book for review from the author as part of the annual Read Your World celebration which matches diverse children’s books with reviewers. However, I can honestly recommend this book to middle grade readers seeking Asian stories. It is a fantastic mirror or window representing the effects of stereotypes, and the fight for social justice. It will appeal to teachers and any child who loves biographies.
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You can Read more reviews of Books that I reviewed for Read Your World on my dedicated Read Your World Goodreads shelf. For more children’s books read the reviews on the Picture Books and Children’s Books shelves. Interested in other genres? I have almost two thousand reviews on Goodreads. With shelves for several genres and interests, I can help you find the story on your next read.
You can follow Storybook Lady, Julie Ditton on
You can Read more reviews of Books that I reviewed for Read Your World on my dedicated Read Your World Goodreads shelf. For more children’s books read the reviews on the Picture Books and Children’s Books shelves. Interested in other genres? I have almost two thousand reviews on Goodreads
