BUYING ADVISORY: EL - ESSENTIAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH
Anjali receives a bike for her 7th birthday. Later that day she meets her friends at the school carnival. At the carnival, there is a booth selling bike license plates with names on them. Anjali and her friends decide to each but one. However, Anjali can not find one to match her name. To make matters worse a boy at the carnival makes fun of Anjali by calling her Peanut Butter An-Jelly. Back at home, Anjali expresses her hurt feelings to her parents by insisting they start calling her Angie. Later Anjali's mom talks to her about the meaning of her name and how it is a Sanskrit word from India. She teaches Anjali to be proud of her name and that being different is marvelous. Anjali spends that night making a one-of-a-kind license plate for her bike with the name Anjali.
The illustrations are bright, fun, and engaging. The messages of being proud of where you come from and rejoicing in our differences are well presented in the story. The characters in the book represent a variety of ethnicities.
A. Snow
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