Sarabella's Thinking Cap

Sarabella is a quiet and contemplative young girl who doesn’t always choose to verbalize her thoughts. Within her family, Sarabella’s parents and older sister are all creatives of various stripes. (All are pale-skinned; Sarabella and her father have black hair, while her mother and sister have brown.) They love and understand Sarabella as she is. However, at school, her teacher is concerned. He feels that Sarabella should daydream less and articulate more. He assigns the class a project in which students draw their favorite thoughts. This inspires Sarabella to share her ideas in a novel way that is truly fitting for her. Visually, the book is often quite stunning, with Sarabella’s thoughts sweeping across the pages as colorful and multitextured collages of images and words. However, the story’s message that creative children may express themselves differently than others is dampened by its presentation as a problem to be solved. Sarabella sometimes needs extra time to complete her assignments, but her meandering mind doesn’t seem to be negatively affecting her learning or her ability to connect with others. This makes her teacher’s concern come across as simply a desire for conformity in the classroom. Additionally, when Sarabella stays up all night to complete her assignment, her effort reads more as a response to pressure than a truly joyful inspiration. A specious attempt to present an inclusive view of the self-expression of creative children. (Picture book. 5-8)

Copyright 2017 Kirkus Reviews, LLC Used with permission.

Punning on the plural of cerebellum, Schachner (the SkippyJon Jones series) introduces a girl who is at her happiest when she's alone with her thoughts. With her "feet on the ground and her head in the clouds," Sarabella is beloved by her passionately creative family, but her teacher, Mr. Fantozzi, hopes she'll find a way to focus, as well as share her thoughts. Inspired by a classroom assignment, Sarabella crafts a thinking cap made of paper, magazine clippings, stickers, and stamps, allowing her classmates to see the swirl of ideas in her head. Readers have much more access to Sarabella's thoughts thanks to Schachner's sprawling mixed-media collages, themselves a tangle of imagery and loosely formed associations: in one jam-packed thought balloon, lithographic images of sea turtles, sheep, and a cabbage jockey for space with hand-drawn ants, words in English and French, and a cartoon string bean. Mr. Fantozzi is a memorable force in Sarabella's life: he never shames her imaginative wanderings and instead celebrates her inquisitiveness. Readers, particularly introspective types, are sure to see the magic in Sarabella's perspective. Ages 5-8. (Sept.)

Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

PreS-Gr 2--Sarabella daydreams constantly but doesn't communicate her thoughts. Her parents, creative types themselves, don't share her teacher's concern that she needs to focus more in school. Her puppet-loving older sister suggests she "take deep breaths and squint" to facilitate concentration, but this just results in a dizzy spell and visit to the school nurse. Finally, a weekend assignment requiring students to draw their thoughts prompts the youngster to follow the advice of the beautiful whale living in her imagination: "To share it, you've/ just got to wear it." After much coloring, cutting, and pasting, she arrives at school wearing a hat containing "the most spectacular collection of doodles and daydreams." The lengthy text includes phrases like "Seeds of ideas" printed in grass and words such as "reason," "reflect," and "ponder" in a flower pot. The colorful illustrations, executed in acrylics, gouache, collage, and mixed media, depict Sarabella's daydreams in huge bubbles containing a cornucopia of objects. Her hat is so remarkable that it stretches across a spread. In humorous contrast, her cat appears repeatedly sporting the same thought: fish. This child has "a green thumb for thinking." Yet this is problematic in school where her teacher, though kind, repeatedly requests that she focus on her work instead of allowing her to learn in her own way. The scene in which she draws her thoughts reveals a distressed girl with "an upset tummy." VERDICT While Sarabella's ideas, seen through Schachner's dazzling illustrations, are presented as wonderfully imaginative, Peter Reynolds's Happy Dreamer offers a much more exuberant dreamer and encouragement for readers to follow his example.--Marianne Saccardi, Children's Literature Consultant, Cambridge, MA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Praise for Sarabella's Thinking Cap

"This gentle book provides support for every child who daydreams in school and a wake-up call for her or his teachers. . . . A lovely celebration of creativity and a different learning style."
—Booklist

"Readers, particularly introspective types, are sure to see the magic in Sarabella's perspective."
—Publishers Weekly

"This is the sweetest read aloud for any child, but particularly for the little daydreamer in your life."
—Geekdad

"Sarabella's ideas, seen through Schachner's dazzling illustrations, are presented as wonderfully imaginative."
—School Library Journal

"More than a tribute to a child's imagination . . . A tender, sensitive tribute to those introspective students in a classroom, who don't always quite fit the standard educational mold—a welcome thing, indeed."
—Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

"This is a great example of the creativity in divergent brains."
—Imagination Soup

"This is an exceptional book! It reveals the inner and outer world of a child with attention challenges, presenting this issue as a gift rather than a disability. The fanciful watercolor illustrations are charming and fun. This book is a valuable resource for any child who struggles in school. It could serve as a valuable tool to encourage understanding and respect of individual differences in the classroom as well."
—Culture Honey