Review: What Am I? (What Race Are We)

I recently received a copy of What Am I? (What Race Are We) Book 2 from Djarabi Kitabs Publishing in exchange for an honest review. This is a children’s book focused around race and culture as told from the eyes of six year old Toa Idris as his “G-Ma” attempts to explain the many different places and cultures his ancestors came from to him.

This book isn’t the shortest, at 37 pages but there are many illustrations all through it so the content itself isn’t too overwhelming. What I liked the most about this book was the fact that difficult concepts aren’t shied away from – the book attempts to give a basic explanation of fractions and there’s an endnote explaining the concept of aqeeqah which parents can read to their children as a way to further discuss what aqeeqah is and why Muslims observe it.

There are several different family dynamics at play in little Toa Idris’s life and so the book also includes a family tree at the beginning to help sort out the characters which is helpful for the occasion where a younger child might get lost in the number of characters.

I also appreciated that the message – to be tolerant and accepting of all people, no matter their colour or nationality is very well spelled out in the book’s conclusion. All in all, a sweet book that does the job it sets out to do and allows for children of various races to see themselves within the pages.

I give this 4 stars.

What Am I? (What Race Are We) Book 2 was written by Asiila Imani and Papatia Feauxzar and illustrated by Juliana Paz. You can purchase it here and here.