4 stars
An adorably sweet guidebook on how to be a purple person.
To be honest, on the first read-through I had no context and while I agreed with the steps, I wasn’t sure what the whole purple thing was about. After reading up on the book, I realized it’s a reference to political parties in the US. Red for Republican, blue for Democrat. When you mix them together you get purple, a call to stop focusing on differences and arguments, and find common ground between ideologies. For kids unaware of the political system, this might be helpful background before reading. Or they might just love the idea of being purple for the sake of being purple. Definitely based on the individual.
Once I got that out of the way, this was such a cute book. It promotes questioning the world, speaking out for yourselves and others (and listening to them), working hard, being yourself, and never forgetting to laugh along the way. It has some great advise and steps.
As many critics have pointed out, this book does not explicitly address racism. The illustrations are quite inclusive but aside from using your voice to help others, really listening to them, and working hard, it does not give specifics on how to help fight racism. It also does not address other forms of discrimination based on intrinsic identities (sexism, classism, ableism, etc.). Instead it focuses on the identities you can change (i.e. political ideology). It serves as a base guide, another resource in a person’s toolbelt for navigating the world.
For this review, I’m choosing to focus on what it does address versus the specifics it does not. There are other recent children’s books that do a great job of exploring different facets of racism specifically. This book goes a good job with what it does focus on.
Wiseman’s illustrations are great. Lots of humor packed into them. Some gross-out humor and general silliness make for an entertaining reading experience. I enjoyed the individuality of each of the characters included. Also the use of color was well done. The use of red and blue clothing to suggest political alignment was a nice touch. It was great to see red and blue people laughing, playing, and helping each other, the embodiment of what it means to be a purple person.
A cute book with a positive message promoting listening and understanding one another, while also focusing on common ground rather than arguing about differences. I can see how this message can get muddled if it’s applied to race.
A children’s book is only as good as how it is taught and read to its audience. This one should not be applied race, it’s about political parties and finding commonalities in order to compromise and move forward. It should not be read as not seeing race/color and ignoring the very real differences in the experiences people face based on race and class.
Within the scope of the book, the story does well with what it sets out to do. It is engaging, empowering, inspiring, and entertaining. A nice general guide to be combined with other books that go into more specifics on the injustices of the world and ways to make the better.