Review by Kat Regas

“All people are special, all people are unique. And all of those differences make the world sweet.” Some People Do is an adorable and informative work that explores the complex topic of diversity in a catchy format that children can understand. The book covers topics such as socioeconomic diversity, religious beliefs, race, gender, and sexual identity. The book intentionally places less ‘taboo’ identities such as dog people and cat people with more complex identities like people of differing religious beliefs. It doesn’t have a discernible plotline with specific characters but instead takes on a more poetic, rhyming structure to send an obvious message. Essentially, the book aims to teach children about acceptance and understanding that everyone is different. Something that I appreciated about the book was that in all of the illustrations–even those not concerning identity–included depictions of diverse individuals. Representation like this that normalizes various identities is so important and exposing young children to the diversity in our world, ultimately, aids in their development as accepting, well-rounded individuals. A unique aspect of the book is the portrayal of animal species and human connection with the natural world. Although the animals are not distinctly anthropomorphized or directly shown as nonhuman people, their presence adds a depth to the book that many similar books fail to explore.

Some People Do, by Frank Lowe and illustrated by Josh Hara. (2019). BQB, 55 pgs.

Kat is a first-year student at the University. She is currently planning on double majoring in Psychology and Strategic Communications with a minor in Art. Growing up, her favorite book was Thank you Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco because she related to Polacco’s autobiographical narrative; she also struggled to learn to read and used art as an escape.