Finding your inner child

Highlights celebs who have a knack.

Bernie Goedhart

Sulwe

Lupita Nyong’o

Illustrated by Vashti Harrison

Simon & Schuster

Ages 4 to 8

There’s something of a genre within children’s literature: picture books written by celebrities who manage to have their words illustrated by accomplished artists. Many leave much to be desired in the text, but every so often you come across one that indicates the author is in touch with his/her inner child and knows how to connect with the three- to seven-year-olds at whom most picture books are aimed.

Sulwe, by actress Lupita Nyong’o, is such a book. Beautifully illustrated by Vashti Harrison, it tells the story of a little girl who “was born the colour of midnight.”

At school, other children ridiculed her, so Sulwe hid herself away, wishing she could lighten the colour of her skin. It took a magical encounter with a shooting star one night and a dreamlike story about two sisters — Night and Day — to teach Sulwe there is beauty in darkness, as well as in light.

An author’s note at the end of the book says Nyong’o, too, was “teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin” and tried to lighten her complexion. “The journey I went on was very different from Sulwe’s nighttime adventure,” Nyong’o writes, “but the lesson was the same.” This is a beautiful book, both in text and illustration.

The Serious Goose

Jimmy Kimmel

Random House

Ages 3 to 7

One surprise about The Serious Goose, by Jimmy Kimmel, is that the TV host not only wrote the text but also provided the illustrations. Kimmel’s book is clearly meant just to entertain. Riffing on the phrase “silly goose,” he gives us the opposite — a goose so serious that Kimmel challenges the reader to crack its demeanour, going so far as to provide a mirror with the reader can practise making funny faces. “Stick out your tongue / and let your ears wiggle / Act like a monkey / this goose shall not giggle,” he writes. When the author is proved wrong, he grudgingly applauds the reader for being “a silly kid” and ends with a decidedly adult rejoinder: “You’ll be hearing from our attorneys.”

A small note at the front says, “All the money I earn from the sale of this book … will be donated to (Children’s Hospital Los Angeles) and children’s hospitals around the (U.S.).”

He’s not the first to use a children’s book to make a charitable donation. As schools are closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, more than a few people have stepped up. Two Hollywood actresses, Jennifer Garner and Amy Adams, launched an Instagram site called Save With Stories, inviting celebrities to read children’s books aloud to entertain kids stuck at home — and to raise money so children who depended on schools for meals and supplies will continue to be fed and given books.

Children are not the only ones to benefit. I discovered that letting someone read me a picture book worked wonders at relieving stress.