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skippypeanuts's review
4.0
Very cute story and I loved the art work. A good example of how asking someone what's wrong works better than assuming you know and yelling at them.
azuki's review
4.0
A premise worth sharing with children and adults alike: when an elephant (in the room? Or, in DiPucchio's story, in the middle of a town) won't budge, most people's response is to use force, coercion, insistence, and the power of some authority. The elephant named Poe is a problem that needs fixing.
But a young, brown-skinned child named Marigold has a different, transformative approach. "Has anyone asked Poe why he won't go?" With listening, compassion, and curiosity, Marigold comes to understand that Poe's refusal to move is based on a simple need -- that the townspeople can help meet. Instead of treating Poe's behavior as a disciplinary issue, Marigold relates to Poe as a being whose needs deserve to be heard and addressed.
This book lost a star because of a spread featuring "the Amazing Carl", a magician wearing a racist stereotype (turban, pointy beard, olive skin; the hallmarks of the "ethnic mystic" that so often is a caricature of non-white people).
But a young, brown-skinned child named Marigold has a different, transformative approach. "Has anyone asked Poe why he won't go?" With listening, compassion, and curiosity, Marigold comes to understand that Poe's refusal to move is based on a simple need -- that the townspeople can help meet. Instead of treating Poe's behavior as a disciplinary issue, Marigold relates to Poe as a being whose needs deserve to be heard and addressed.
This book lost a star because of a spread featuring "the Amazing Carl", a magician wearing a racist stereotype (turban, pointy beard, olive skin; the hallmarks of the "ethnic mystic" that so often is a caricature of non-white people).
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