Gem

by Emma Kallok

Soon after her saxophone-playing neighbor composes a special song, a young girl's baby sister arrives and receives an appropriate name. By the author of The Diary of Chickabiddy Baby.

Genres: Picture Books, Family

32 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2001

Reviews

[Hannah Melberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

GEM was a book about a young girl with a white mother and a black father. Her mother is pregnant and is going to give birth very soon. They have a neighbor named Bluesy who plays the saxophone all the time that the little girl can hear from their apartment. One morning her and her mother makes pancakes and her mother asks her to go ask Bluesy if he would like to come join them. When they two of them return home her father is back from work already eating some of the cakes. Bluesy eats his and begins playing his gems again. Mother shouts that the baby is coming and they all rush her down to the hospital. As they are waiting Bluesy plays his saxophone as quiet as he can. Soon after her father comes out and says it’s a girl. They named her Gem and Bluesy felt honored. This book is classified as a bi racial book because of the white mother and black father. I think this would be a great book to use in my future classroom when discussing different family types. I really like the language in the book and all the descriptive words that author used like thick oozy rivers of maple syrup. As well as the text itself; some of the words were bolded or in a different font as well as different sizes.