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The Little Red Stroller
One handy little stroller is passed from family to family in this uplifting picture book celebration of community, diversity, and sharing
When Luna is born, her mommy gives her a little red stroller. It accompanies her and her mommy through all the activities of their day, until she outgrows the stroller and is able to pass it down to a toddler in her neighborhood who now needs it. And so the stroller lives on, getting passed from one child to the next, highlighting for preschool readers the diversity of families: some kids with two mommies, some with two daddies, some with just one parent, and all from different cultures and ethnicities. This simple, cheerful book is a lovely portrait of the variety and universality of family.
When Luna is born, her mommy gives her a little red stroller. It accompanies her and her mommy through all the activities of their day, until she outgrows the stroller and is able to pass it down to a toddler in her neighborhood who now needs it. And so the stroller lives on, getting passed from one child to the next, highlighting for preschool readers the diversity of families: some kids with two mommies, some with two daddies, some with just one parent, and all from different cultures and ethnicities. This simple, cheerful book is a lovely portrait of the variety and universality of family.
40 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 16, 2019
108 people want to read
About the author
Joshua Furst
5 books47 followersJoshua Furst’s critically acclaimed book of stories, Short People, was described by the Miami Herald as “a near magical collection.” The Los Angeles Times called it “Startling . . . a thoughtful if disturbing portrait of what it means to be a child. Or, more to the point, what it means to be human.” And the Times of London said "Any one of these stories is enough to break your heart. . . . Joshua Furst's debut is both enjoyable and important.” His work has been published in The Chicago Tribune, Conjunctions, Five Chapters and The Crab Orchard Review among other places and given citations for notable achievement by The Best American Short Stories and The O’Henry Awards.
Among the awards and grants he has received are a 2001-2002 James Michener-Paul Engle Fellowship from the James Michener Foundation/Copernicus Society of America, a 1997 Chicago Tribune Nelson Algren Award for his short story “Red Lobster,” and fellowships from The MacDowell Colony and ArtOmi/Ledig House. He was a finalist for the 1992 Fringe First award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and a runner up in the 2001 Playboy College Fiction Contest.
From 1993 through 1998, he was an active participant in the New York alternative theatre scene. Among other accomplishments in this field, he helped organize and run Nada Theatre’s 1995 Obie award winning Faust Festival and was one of the producers of the 1998 New York RAT conference which brought experimental theatre artists from across the United States together for a week of performance and symposia. His plays include Whimper, Myn and The Ellipse and Other Shapes. They have been produced by numerous theatres, both in the United States and abroad, including PS122, Adobe Theatre Company, Cucaracha Theatre Company, HERE, The Demarco European Art Foundation, and Annex Theatre in Seattle.
He studied as an undergraduate at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, receiving a BFA in Dramatic Writing in 1993 and did graduate work at The University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, from which he received an MFA with Honors in 2001.
Joshua Furst lives in New York City, and teaches fiction and playwriting at The Pratt Institute.
Among the awards and grants he has received are a 2001-2002 James Michener-Paul Engle Fellowship from the James Michener Foundation/Copernicus Society of America, a 1997 Chicago Tribune Nelson Algren Award for his short story “Red Lobster,” and fellowships from The MacDowell Colony and ArtOmi/Ledig House. He was a finalist for the 1992 Fringe First award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and a runner up in the 2001 Playboy College Fiction Contest.
From 1993 through 1998, he was an active participant in the New York alternative theatre scene. Among other accomplishments in this field, he helped organize and run Nada Theatre’s 1995 Obie award winning Faust Festival and was one of the producers of the 1998 New York RAT conference which brought experimental theatre artists from across the United States together for a week of performance and symposia. His plays include Whimper, Myn and The Ellipse and Other Shapes. They have been produced by numerous theatres, both in the United States and abroad, including PS122, Adobe Theatre Company, Cucaracha Theatre Company, HERE, The Demarco European Art Foundation, and Annex Theatre in Seattle.
He studied as an undergraduate at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, receiving a BFA in Dramatic Writing in 1993 and did graduate work at The University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, from which he received an MFA with Honors in 2001.
Joshua Furst lives in New York City, and teaches fiction and playwriting at The Pratt Institute.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
October 22, 2019
This book feels like the author wrote a checklist titled "How to teach diversity in a children's book" and then threw out the plot and just wrote to the checklist. I am all for diversity, multi-culturalism, and examples of all the many places you can choose to live. I am also for good writing for kids. I am also for engaging stories with actual plots. They are children and as such, deserve the best writing we can offer. This isn't it.
January 7, 2020
In this story, the little red stroller is passed from family to family, traveling through many activities and diverse communities, until it faces its demise (after at least 10 families used it from babyhood through toddlerhood). But just when the last family discovers the red stroller is broken beyond repair, another family comes along and offers up their yellow stroller, since they no longer need it. In a cute ending, the yellow stroller somehow makes it back to the original owner of the red stroller, completing the cycle. Aside from the fact that very few strollers could make it through more than two or three families (especially families who spend so much time traveling and walking/jogging), it’s a cute story of community and recycling useful items. The art in this book was created digitally.
For more children's literature, middle grade literature, and YA literature reviews, feel free to visit my personal blog at The Miller Memo!
For more children's literature, middle grade literature, and YA literature reviews, feel free to visit my personal blog at The Miller Memo!
May 22, 2024
Agenda much?
June 11, 2019
I may have gotten a little teary-eyed reading this wonderful tale of kindness and passing it on!
July 17, 2019
Very cute little story about the journey of a little red stroller from one family to another!
May 3, 2019
Lovely
June 26, 2019
While this simple, repetitive tale of kids generously passing along their outgrown stroller to other, younger kids goes on almost too long, many kids will enjoy the predictable nature of the story and seeing the variations in the different families and the adventures they each take the stroller on. While the pictures depict many kinds of families, I was struck (given how long the book is) that differently abled people and fat people were pretty much absent from its pages.
February 2, 2020
The Little Red Stroller by Joshua Furst, illustrated by KatyWu. PICTURE BOOK. Dial (Penguin Random House), 2019. $18. 9780735228801
BUYING ADVISORY: PRE-K – OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
After countless trips around town in her little red stroller that her mom got for her when she was an infant, Luna declares she is too big for it now when she sees a neighbor in need. She and her mom give the stroller to them, who similarly get great use out of it, until their boy outgrows it. They then give it to another family, and so it goes. The red stroller gets passed from child to child, family to family, until it gets so tattered and tired, it can go no farther. Luckily, a boy notices the broken red stroller and a crying child, and passes along his yellow stroller that he’s now outgrown. Coming full circle, this yellow stroller makes it to Luna, grown up now and with a baby of her own.
The generosity portrayed by each family who is willing, in turn, to pass along a very useful piece of equipment to another family in greater need is endearing. Nevertheless, the hand-offs become a bit tedious, repeated so often as if for the sole purpose of including every family type and every setting imaginable. On the other hand, it offers a wide variety of families and settings from which little ones can learn.
P.K.Foster, MLS, school librarian
https://kissthebookjr.blogspot.com/20...
BUYING ADVISORY: PRE-K – OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
After countless trips around town in her little red stroller that her mom got for her when she was an infant, Luna declares she is too big for it now when she sees a neighbor in need. She and her mom give the stroller to them, who similarly get great use out of it, until their boy outgrows it. They then give it to another family, and so it goes. The red stroller gets passed from child to child, family to family, until it gets so tattered and tired, it can go no farther. Luckily, a boy notices the broken red stroller and a crying child, and passes along his yellow stroller that he’s now outgrown. Coming full circle, this yellow stroller makes it to Luna, grown up now and with a baby of her own.
The generosity portrayed by each family who is willing, in turn, to pass along a very useful piece of equipment to another family in greater need is endearing. Nevertheless, the hand-offs become a bit tedious, repeated so often as if for the sole purpose of including every family type and every setting imaginable. On the other hand, it offers a wide variety of families and settings from which little ones can learn.
P.K.Foster, MLS, school librarian
https://kissthebookjr.blogspot.com/20...
July 17, 2019
I loved this! It's a little too long for a storytime though. I loved the different representations of family, parenting, identity, and life. Each child and their family takes the stroller to unique places that tell us about their lives. I love how the path they take the stroller on is illustrated with colorful dots. Each picture is filled with so much detail! I also love how it is the child in each scenario that is offering to pass on the stroller to the next person who needs it, it is really kid focused in the need/giving of the stroller. The sequence where the stroller is personified as having gone on adventures and is now tired is really cute too. I love that it came full circle.
So sweet. A great way to portray numerous concepts such as families, identity, adventure/places, and sharing/generosity.
So sweet. A great way to portray numerous concepts such as families, identity, adventure/places, and sharing/generosity.
March 22, 2021
A story of community.
Read
August 5, 2023When Luna is born, her mother gives her a red stroller that is always present during her daily activities. As Luna outgrows the stroller, it gets passed on to different children in the community. The stroller's journey comes full circle when it returns to Luna, who is now a mother.
The Little Red Stroller explores the importance of sharing, how caring for one another can strengthen community bonds, recycling, and how objects can carry stories and memories.
Discussion Questions:
1. How does the journey of the little red stroller represent the cycle of giving?
2. What does the story teach us about sharing?
3. How do the children in the story care for and use the stroller? What does this tell us about respect for shared things?
4. How did you feel when the stroller returned to Luna, now a mother?
5. What memories do you think the stroller carries with it as it moves from one child to another?
The Little Red Stroller explores the importance of sharing, how caring for one another can strengthen community bonds, recycling, and how objects can carry stories and memories.
Discussion Questions:
1. How does the journey of the little red stroller represent the cycle of giving?
2. What does the story teach us about sharing?
3. How do the children in the story care for and use the stroller? What does this tell us about respect for shared things?
4. How did you feel when the stroller returned to Luna, now a mother?
5. What memories do you think the stroller carries with it as it moves from one child to another?
March 15, 2021
Genre: Contemporary Realistic
Grade Level: 1st
This is once again another cute story. Here, a stroller being used by many families as it gets used. Because the stroller isn't anthropomorphic, we get to see the different families that use it for their children before it gets passed onto someone new. I enjoyed the diversity presented in this book as it includes people of different races and genders which is good to introduce to children at a young age so they can be comfortable with diversity in the future. (Spoilers I guess:) I also enjoyed how the book went full circle and a new yellow stroller was given to the family from the beginning of the story.
Grade Level: 1st
This is once again another cute story. Here, a stroller being used by many families as it gets used. Because the stroller isn't anthropomorphic, we get to see the different families that use it for their children before it gets passed onto someone new. I enjoyed the diversity presented in this book as it includes people of different races and genders which is good to introduce to children at a young age so they can be comfortable with diversity in the future. (Spoilers I guess:) I also enjoyed how the book went full circle and a new yellow stroller was given to the family from the beginning of the story.
November 24, 2020
This cute story shows the spirit of generosity (and the friendships that can surround hand-me-downs!) through a variety of multicultural families, representing different religions, ethnicities, multiracial couples, and even a lesbian and a gay couple. The stroller helps these families do lots of fun activities together, like go to the boardwalk, outdoor concerts, birthday parties, etc. It's a sweet story about community, growing up and out of things, and cheerfully letting go of what you don't need to help others.
April 23, 2019
This is a beautiful book about sharing amongst friends and neighbors. The pictures depict a variety of diverse family structures, including single parents and LGBT parents, and parents and children of many ethnicities going on little trips around town and special trips to the beach and the farm. Kids will be able to find themselves and their families and friends in this book, which is a pleasure to read aloud. Highly recommend!
June 28, 2019
A circle story. Luna starts with the little red stroller and then when she out grows it she passes it along. The story continues as family upon family use the red stroller. Finally the little red stroller breaks and a new yellow stroller is introduced. By this time Luna is old enough to have her own baby and the little yellow stroller is passed to her. Diverse characters fill the pages and the illustrations are warm and fun.
October 23, 2019
There's a nice sense of community here and a careful display of multiculturalism and all kinds of families. Will parents enjoy this more than the kids? It's possible, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. My one disappointment is that I was hoping to see something nice done with the fabled stroller--perhaps recycled into a doll stroller, or some such--rather than just being replaced with a new stroller.
November 26, 2022
I’m all for the diversity represented throughout the book. But it reads like a caricature of this type of story. Way too many characters introduced by what reads as a long list of facts about each exchange. Some head scratching details shared in what I imagine was supposed to be cute or quirky.
Diversity seems like the authors intent which is great but the story pays the price. I’m highly doubtful the author tried reading this book out loud to a group of toddlers before publishing.
Diversity seems like the authors intent which is great but the story pays the price. I’m highly doubtful the author tried reading this book out loud to a group of toddlers before publishing.
June 3, 2019
A very cute book about a red stroller that gets passed along between different families in the community when their little ones outgrow it. I really liked the diverse representation of families of many different cultural backgrounds. The pictures are a little small so it would make a better one-on-one book for younger elementary children.
September 3, 2019
We love this book because it normalizes different families by making the book about the journey of a little red stroller and nothing more. There are mommies and daddies and mommies and mommies and daddies and daddies of all kinds of races and groupings of singles and couples. This is a great book for toddler aged kids to read.
February 15, 2020
I have a story about admiring a kid's parka at a block party and when I told the kid's dad how my kids used to have one just like it, he called the kid over, zipped open the jacket, and we found my son's name in it - even though I didn't know this dad or kid at all... and that's what this cute stroller story is all about.
December 21, 2022
Marvelous story I read on FaceTime with my 3 year old granddaughter during Hanukkah. While it extols the value of passing on this Stroller to those who need it...it does a wonderful job of showing many places that the stroller was taken and has the wonderful Jewish Value of L'dor V'dor--from one generation to another.
June 18, 2019
Very sweet. Really liked the range of places, activities and people--excellent variety blended with soothing repetition for a read-aloud. Also a satisfying story: not too long while also not missing anything.
September 9, 2019
bahaha, what magic stroller survives so many kids? none. that and the facts that nobody already owned a stroller and the other family was always ready to hand it over seemed utterly unrealistic to an annoying degree
January 22, 2020
Love this one. Love the urban environment, the mix of families that look like ours and like our friends. Love the message of growing up and passing down. We also have a little red stroller I am currently VERY attached to.
July 22, 2021
So good! I had to request it from outside my own library network which bummed me out but I'm glad I could get it for Storytime. It's such a cute community title. And the story comes back around on itself at the end.
April 23, 2019
A sweet story that gets an extra half a star from me for having a character named Luna. :)
May 28, 2019
Unique idea for sharing & caring. Great illustrations.
June 14, 2019
Good for discussion.
June 18, 2019
A red stroller is passed from family to family impacting their lives in differnt ways. Elementary and up
June 22, 2019
A little red stroller is passed along in a neighborhood to many different families until it is worn out and a new stroller continues the journey.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews