2024 the best me book review
Price: $19.99 - $16.75
(as of Nov 17, 2024 03:45:09 UTC - Details)
Zulay and her three best friends are all in the same first grade class and study the same things, even though Zulay is blind. When their teacher asks her students what activity they want to do on Field Day, Zulay surprises everyone when she says she wants to run a race. With the help of a special aide and the support of her friends, Zulay does just that.
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR); First Edition (January 13, 2015)
Language : English
Hardcover : 40 pages
ISBN-10 : 0374388199
ISBN-13 : 978-0374388195
Reading age : 4 - 8 years
Grade level : 1 - Preschool
Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
Dimensions : 8.95 x 0.35 x 10.8 inches
Reviewer: Kay Peel
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: An inspiring, multicultural story about a girl who demonstrates an "I can" attitude
Review: My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay, is an inspiring story about a young girl who believes she can and tries. I got this book to read to my 1st grade students. Not only does the book feature multicultural characters in strong roles, Zulay also demonstrates a growth mindset. Zulay also is in 1st grade.
Reviewer: russell higgins
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent
Review: Wonderful story
Reviewer: Jessica Erin Erlich
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: So nice to see a children's book hip and new around ...
Review: So nice to see a children's book hip and new around the topic of visual impairment. Great for orientation and mobility instructors!
Reviewer: Lulu Moyo
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A great book for teaching differences
Review: Children start noticing differences among themselves at a very early age, and so I greatly appreciated reading this book. The books that I've read about diversity or varying abilities have often othered their subjects in a not so helpful way. Cari Best has produced a very useful and fun teaching tool with this book. Zulay is not only a racial minority, but she is also a blind student in a class of seeing students. This makes her an incredibly marginalized character. This is important to understand because when talking about disabilities, the narratives of children of color are often kept in the shadows. I've never seen this type of children's book before. I found the content to be very useful in capturing the complex experience of a child with a disability in a school where the majority of students are able bodied. The story was slightly idealistic as Zulay has a strong group of friends, goes to a school where there are professional staff with the skills to teach blind students, and she doesn't face bullying. Those narratives are common among students with different abilities. This idealistic story lines seems as though it's due to the fact that Zulay attends a seemly wealthy private school that can accommodate her needs. She has kind, racially diverse friends who accept her. She has great teachers that motivate and support her. Her story would most definitely have differed if her character went to a school with less economic resources. But what I found important was that her character struggles with accepting her own status as being labeled as "disabled". She can't accept being othered and made different by her teachers and her peers. It's also highlighted that she has different strengths in comparison to the other students: She's strong at math and writing, while she struggles at drawing shapes. I found that important because like anyone, people have strengths and weaknesses, but they shouldn't be defined by them. Zulay is still as bright as her classmates even though she struggles at capturing visual practicum. Best brought the book to a great conclusion with Zulay finally finding her own strength and confidence as she runs the race she dreams of. I appreciated the language that Best uses. The language captures has children speak about themselves, their, peers, and adults. It is also very poet at times. The illustrations by Vanessa Brantley-Newton, beautifully capture the playfulness of the written word.
Reviewer: Speculativedryad
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Being blind doesnât mean different
Review: Zulay can do most of what any other kid can do and she really wants to be just like her friends. But she doesnât feel normal. Because she is blind, she âseesâ her world different, and that makes her upset. When an upcoming race comes up, can she handle it?
Reviewer: ReadsALot
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A nice discussion followed
Review: Just read this aloud to a class of 23 first and second graders, and I've never seen them so attentive. Despite the fact that it's a "longer" picture book, they related to the characters, their situations, and really wanted to see what the outcome would be for the race at the end. A nice discussion followed. Highly recommend!
Reviewer: Amanda McCoy
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: I love this book!
Review: Visually impaired adult here, and I love this book! It would be perfect for kids who are struggling to accept their differences. Zulay is going through a process that almost all blind/VI kiddos go through at some point; she just wants to fit in and be "normal".I did take off a star, because the story feels a bit long for young readers. Most blind kids will already be using their cane by Zulay's age, so the exact scenario will only fit some students. That said, it's a great message! I also notice that the friend group isn't featured much. It's more about Zulay. I feel like the name is a bit misleading for that reason. (Better descriptors might be "Zulay Runs" or "Zulay's Cane"A great book and well worth a read!
Reviewer: Read-aloud Mom
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: My kid likes it much better than I do
Review: My preschooler picked out this book, intrigued by the reference to three best friends, and has seemed reasonably happy with it. (The concept of friendship is very interesting in our house at the moment!)I do like that Zulay has more identities than just being blind and Black (she's a friend, she's a student, she's observant, she's good at math, she wants to do track and field, she can have trouble remembering not to speak out of turn in class [my kid identifies with this last]). Vanessa Brantley-Newton's illustrations do a great job of conveying character and emotions, too! And I like that it has a reasonably cheerful, upbeat tone (it's not an invitation to pity Zulay, hurray!), while also not ignoring that Zulay's disability does affect her life. I like the section where she doesn't want to be singled out from her class to go practice walking with her cane, and I love how she responds with frustration when a friend is too curious about it.However, it is not a book I would necessarily have picked. As a read-aloud, it's a little clunky. Our family loves quiet picture books and my kid usually has a great attention span - but there's a lot of text here that doesn't seem to move the story forward and my audience can get pretty wiggly. The interracial friendgroup referenced in the title doesn't actually seem very central to what story there is; the main plot seems to be about Zulay learning to use her cane and running a race with the help of a (white) aide? And in the back, there's a dedication from the author: "For Zulay, and her marvelous mother". What I'd like to know is, are the real Zulay and her marvelous mother seeing any of the royalties from the sale of this book? Are they benefiting in any way from this white author deciding to tell a story about them, or is this... sort of... well... exploitive?Still, as far as examples of "Abled White Author Writes About Disabled Colored Person Participating in A Race" go, it does beat Knots On A Counting Rope hands-down, so... I guess there's that?
Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: My kids love this book and I enjoy reading it - the words have a lovely rhythm and I like the diversity shown in the main characters.
Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A inspirational book, best for 4+