Picture books have been my life line of late, and one of my more favorites is, The Kindest Red: A Story of Hijab and Friendship. This is a companion book to another Ibihaj Muhammad, S.K. Ali, Hatem Aly creation, The Proudest Blue. While this time, I was not as taken, I enjoyed reading it. We are exposed to not just another culture but we have a sibling story as well.
We see how we can create our own special worlds, like a kindness world, or a unicorn world or an ice cream world. (This is from a project our young narrator is doing in class). And we follow the children as they do things to help each other throughout the school day to help make that Kindness World. And this day is not just any day, but it is picture day. Their class picture is filled with smiles, but when it comes to siblings to take pictures together, Faizah (our narrator) realizes her friends have matching outfits in one way or the other with their sibling(s), but she and her sister do not. It is now time for her friends to come and help her!
For me it is the illustrations that make the story pop. The color red, obviously, is important to the story, but so are all the colors. The book is a type of Kindness World the authors and artist have made. We see the rainbow of diverse people and things. The details work to move the story along, giving support to the words. Currently available, read via an online reader copy.