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Reviewed by:
  • Keep Your Head Up by Aliya King Neil
  • Deborah Stevenson, Editor
Neil, Aliya King Keep Your Head Up; illus. by Charly Palmer. Millner/Simon, 2021 [32p]
Trade ed. ISBN 9781534480407 $17.99
E-book ed. ISBN 9781534480414 $10.99
Reviewed from digital galleys R 5-9 yrs

It looks like D. is having one of those days, starting with oversleeping and with missing toothpaste (D.’s sister took it to make slime), then at school realizing “I’m supposed to have on my gym uniform.” Things go downhill and D. starts getting “scrunchy” and distracted, and despite the principal’s exhortation to “keep your head up,” the D. train eventually pulls in to Meltdown City: “A meltdown is when you want to keep your head up, but it won’t stay.” After being picked up by parents from school, D. plaintively asks “So, this day won’t get any better?”, to which D.’s loving mother points out that sometimes days don’t, but you can still try to keep your head up. There are echoes of Viorst’s classic Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (BCCB 12/72) in D.’s doomed-from-the-start experience; while some details suggest that D. may be dealing with particular challenges of neurodiversity, the cavalcade of setbacks will speak to all kinds of youngsters. Palmer’s vigorous painterly strokes give the acrylic illustrations compelling power (D.’s “‘Bad Day’ face” is poignantly on-target), and kids will be intrigued by the device of the rain cloud that hovers over poor D.’s head all day. There’s a lot of love for D. throughout, including from the kind and understanding principal at what looks to be a majority Black school, and it’s blended with wise realism about the fact that sometimes bad days stay bad, but you just have to try your best to get through them anyway.

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