Communities Work Together
We all move in different ways but one thing is certain, we all move together. In their new picture book We Move Together, Kelly Frisch, Anne McGuire and Eduardo Trejos illuminate the different ways people move around in a city and how we can work together to ensure that everyone has equal access. We Move Together encourages readers to recognize things that are inaccessible and work to make them accessible, to be patient with the way we need to move.
Gorgeously illustrated and simply put this is a book that should be shared even with all readers. This book can be shared with all readers from newborn all the way up to adults. The lovely simple story embedded with information about working together. There are wonderful moments like how the authors point out that there are times when we have to wait and waiting can be pretty boring. They turn that boring feeling around and share how waiting can be exciting too. The authors share with readers how in a community we all work together to solve problems and help each other out. We can learn from each other too.
Another thing we love about this book is the wealth of information included at the back of the book for the older readers. The authors get into the definition of ableism and talk about disability justice activists. They include information about accessibility and community access projects, artists with disabilities and history within the disability community.
The illustrations by Eduardo Trejos are detailed, thoughtful and inclusive. They represent a community working together. Just like many communities in the real world, the illustrations are full of diverse people and if you look closely at the illustrations you will notice people with different disabilities. There are people communicating through sign language, people communicating with their bodies, people moving in different ways, etc. Full of colour and joy, there is so much beauty on the pages, readers will return to this book often just to seek out something new.
There is a very significant gap in the Canadian children’s publishing industry as it relates to the availability of books by and about persons with disabilities. We Move Together is an important addition to the Canadian children’s literature landscape and hopefully many more books and stories to come. As we begin to move out of the pandemic we need to have more books like We Move Together to ensure the lessons in accessibility we learned while mandated to be at home continue to be learned as we emerge. For more information go to www.wemovetogether.ca
