Everything Naomi Loved

by Katie Yamasaki (Author) Katie Yamasaki (Illustrator)

Everything Naomi Loved
Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

Honking cars, pizza by the slice, Hair by Carmen, the corner bodega--and Naomi's best friend, Ada. But 11th Street begins to change.

Shops close, buildings are torn down, and signs promise something new. One by one, Naomi's neighbors are forced to move. Faced with the transformation of her city block, Naomi picks up a paintbrush. When something we love goes away we paint it on the wall so it's always with us, her neighbor Mister Ray tells her. Naomi turns her 11th Street memories into a great mural--and discovers that where she finds people to love, she will have a place to love.

Internationally acclaimed muralist Katie Yamasaki's paintings are at once monumental and heartfelt. Everything Naomi Loved entwines a celebration of community and friendship with a vision of social justice in this lyrical and universal story about home.

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$18.95

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Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

Naomi, a tan-skinned girl with brown hair, loves her busy, vibrant block, with its "honking, blaring, booming cars, / and the corner bodega." One morning, she discovers that the sidewalk tree in whose shade she and her friend Ada, a Black girl, play has been cut down. "They're building something new," says Naomi's mom. "Something fancy," says her dad. Mister Ray from the auto body shop helps Naomi mourn: "Where I grew up/ when something we love goes away/ we paint it on the wall/ so it's always with us," he says. He renders her beloved tree on the building's side, and, when Ada's building is scheduled for demolition and her family must move away, they paint Ada there, too. Yamasaki and Landler convey the loss of a living, breathing community beset by gentrification. Muralist Yamasaki paints in a distinctive folk-art style crowded with pigeons, ribbons of music, and an inclusive array of city dwellers. Together with Lendler, she champions the power of ordinary people to preserve what's lost through art. Ages 6-8. (Sept.)

Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

Champions the power of ordinary people to preserve what's lost through art.— "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781324004912
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Norton Young Readers
Publication date
September 15, 2020
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV051000 - Juvenile Fiction | Imagination & Play
JUV039220 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Values & Virtues
JUV023000 - Juvenile Fiction | Lifestyles | City & Town Life
JUV074000 - Juvenile Fiction | Diversity & Multicultural
Library of Congress categories
Picture books
City and town life
Loss (Psychology)
Neighborhoods
Mural painting and decoration
Horn Book Magazine

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