Creativity

by John Steptoe

Charles, an African American student, learns to appreciate his similarities to and differences from his new friend Hector, who is from Puerto Rico. "A characteristically warm slice-of-life tale that also serves up a lesson or two about friendship and ethnic pride. . . . The artist relays the characters' affections through well-chosen compositions, placing his figures in natural but intimate relation to one another. All told, a book with a heart." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review

Genres: Friendship, Picture Books

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

John Steptoe was an award-winning author and illustrator of children's books from New York City. He began working on his first children's book, Stevie, while still a teenager and achieved great success during his tragically short career, encouraging the advancement of African American culture by producing work about the African American experience that children could appreciate. Recipient of two Coretta Scott King Awards and two Caldecott Honors, Steptoe was posthumously honored by the creation of the John Steptoe New Talent Award, an award designated annually by the Coretta Scott King Award Task Force. Steptoe's best known work is Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, for which he won his second Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award.

Reviews

[Cassandra Arrotta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book represents multi-cultures within its illustrations and explains the word, creativity, as an action. This story is about a new boy in school, Hector, who struggles a bit with fitting in in terms of appearance and apparel choice. The main character is mixed race and so is the "new kid" although he speaks a different language and English. In the end the narrator becomes creative in helping his friend fit in at school, and receives a creative gift from Hector in return.

This book can be read to students at the upper elementary and mid level range to help teach about equality, stereotyping and biases, being a good friend and much more. Since this book is about two boys of a minority race, but represents most races within its illustrations, it can be used to discuss whose voices are represented and whose voices are missing. This book can also be used as a counter text to help combat racial biases and beliefs that can be found within other literature. It also shows the main character taking action and righting the social injustices that happen to his friend at school.

[Benjamin Elliott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good story of the experience of a new kid coming to a school and showing how to be welcoming to that person, but it is a little long for the picture book format. Probably more for a specific teaching use with an older student who wouldn't necessarily pick up a picture book on their own. The page long discussion of the definition of "creativity" is interesting, but the main character's applications of it don't exactly show that he picked up the best sense of the word, making it an odd choice for the title of the book I thought.

[Marilyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alissa began to get an understanding of appreciation and acceptance of other cultures.

[Claire Wang · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s okay if people teases you ,you just say it’s my creativity

[Michaila · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book. It's about a boy who speaks Spanish and some English, and moves with his family to a new city. On his first day of school, his teacher had to speak a little Spanish to translate, one boy in particular did not understand why. He could see that the boy looked the same as him, but didn't understand why he spoke a different language. The two boys become friends, and when the Spanish speaking boy goes to gym class with a pair of sneakers that don't fit in, he explains to the boy why everyone else is laughing at him. The boy tells his friend that his sneakers are out-dated, and so is the shirt he's wearing and the other boy responds by saying his mom just bought him the shoes and they can'f afford anything else and the shirt he was wearing reminds him of home. The boy goes home and takes out a pair of his old sneakers to give to the Spanish speaking boy so he can fit in more. He explains to the boy that even if he doesn't fit in, he will still "be his boy." The Spanish speaking boy in turn, gives his friend the shirt that reminds him of home.

I think this is a good book because it shows how different each one of us are from one another, and yet how we are the same. This is a pretty long book, so I would read it in sections to the class. I would probably read this to 3rd or 4th graders because of some of the language. I would use this book to explain that we may come across people who speak a different language from us, or who may be different from us, but we can still be friends, and it doesn't mean that we should ignore someone who is different from us. (This would also be a good book to read prior to an ELL student coming to the classroom.)

[Holly Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The teachers at our school just had a meeting yesterday about what it might be like to follow the rules of culture. We talked about how it might be hard for a student new to our school to know what all of the rules are if we don't teach them. The rules at their last school or home might be very different. This book is a perfect illustration to that. Hector is a boy that is new to the class from Puerto Rico, and Charles a boy in the class gets to know him and helps him figure out how to fit in at his new school. It really spoke to the fact that each school has a different culture of rules and expectations for learning and making friends and the best way to learn those rules is to have a trusted friend help explain them. Sometimes, a book resonates more because of the timing in which you read it. That was definitely the case today!

[BillyAnn Stempel]

This book is about a young boy who goes to school in a primarily black neighborhood. A new student who is Puerto Rican comes to his school and he becomes close to them. This is all about an unlikely friendship that comes to be. Both boys must learn to cross cultural and language barriers to get to know one another better.

Illustrations are done in water color

I liked this book because it showed the awkwardness of forming a new friendship. There are also themes of race and language throughout this book. This is a great way to talk to students about how it is okay to look different and still be friends.

[Brandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

share this with students in 3rd-5th grade. This can lead to a class discussion about how different people are. The author introduces a positive word for people that may do things a bid differently than others; CREATIVE.