With the third book in the charming Kitty and Friends series, Lana Button explores how scary a new place can be and how we should all demonstrate compassion and patience as we learn to navigate new surroundings. Tayra’s Not Talking, illustrated by Christine Battuz, shows readers how there is more than one way to make new friends.

Tayra is the new kid in class. All of her classmates are trying to strike up a conversation but Tayra isn’t talking. Of course her classmates assume she is mean and grouchy. Kitty is very observant, she notices Tayra and asks herself why Tayra might be acting the way she is acting. Through compassion and a different way of thinking, Kitty welcomes Tayra into the class and shows her classmates how communication can happen with more than just words.

It’s clear that Lana Button has first hand experience with the types of social-emotional behaviour she writes about. She’s a kindergarten teacher and would see these things all of the time, as I have seen them as a preschool teacher. We all react differently to change and to new things. We are seeing more and more of this as children who have never been away from their parents are suddenly finding themselves in crowded classrooms thanks to the ongoing pandemic. Through her gentle, poetic story, Lana Button teachers readers about compassion and about non verbal communication as a way of inclusion.

Chistine Battuz’s illustrations are sweet. It’s so fun to look for Kitty in all of the illustrations to see what she is doing, how she is observing what is going on. The illustrations create a wonderful in for teachers and parents to talk about what is happening in the story and how Kitty is reacting vs her classmates.