Bonjour, Lonnie

Rating:
Summary: At Last - A Delightful Book with Challenging Content
Review: Bonjour Lonnie by Faith Ringgold is a fable based in realism, filled with the beautifully imaginative images of the artist and author. Lonnie is an orphan who follows a magical Love Bird to Paris, where he discovers his family history. He finds out that he is African American, French and Jewish and that his life mirrors some of the most significant events of the 20th century. His heritage has been molded by the World War I Harlem Hell Fighters Troop, the Harlem Renaissance, the African American experience in Paris, the Holocaust and an escape to America. Readers will be happy to follow Lonnie's adventures to a home and family of his own.

This book is unique in that it weaves serious content into a children's book in a most appropriate way. Important issues are presented for children to consider, question and explore with the guidance of parents and teachers. How refreshing it is to find a book that is not afraid to include "real life" content. Today's students are multi-racial, multi -lingual and certainly multi-cultural. It's high time that our children can enjoy and be challenged by a book like Bonjour Lonnie.

Rating:
Summary: At Last - A Delightful Book with Challenging Content
Review: Bonjour Lonnie by Faith Ringgold is a fable based in realism, filled with the beautifully imaginative images of the artist and author. Lonnie is an orphan who follows a magical Love Bird to Paris, where he discovers his family history. He finds out that he is African American, French and Jewish and that his life mirrors some of the most significant events of the 20th century. His heritage has been molded by the World War I Harlem Hell Fighters Troop, the Harlem Renaissance, the African American experience in Paris, the Holocaust and an escape to America. Readers will be happy to follow Lonnie's adventures to a home and family of his own.

This book is unique in that it weaves serious content into a children's book in a most appropriate way. Important issues are presented for children to consider, question and explore with the guidance of parents and teachers. How refreshing it is to find a book that is not afraid to include "real life" content. Today's students are multi-racial, multi -lingual and certainly multi-cultural. It's high time that our children can enjoy and be challenged by a book like Bonjour Lonnie.

Rating:
Summary: This Children's Book is NOT for Children!
Review: This book is extremely DARK.

While I absolutely LOVE multi-cultural books and am raising my daughter with cultural and racial awareness and sensitivity, I cannot recommend this book AT ALL. I picked it up, as I liked the title and thought my daughter would like to hear/read a children's story from France.

Unfortunately, this is one of the worst books I have ever seen. I feel compelled to warn others about it. While it does indeed delve into cultural diversity, it goes WAY TOO FAR! It talks about World War I and II, using adult words, such as "renaissance", "nazi", "infantry", and "exterminated". And, do you really think the subject of jews being exterminated is an appropriate topic for children, ages 4 - 9? Or illustrations of soldiers holding jews at gunpoint? NOT!

And, an editorial side note (I'm an editor), the story hops around from city to city (Paris, Vienna, Champagne, Harlem, Germany, etc.) and it's hard for young children to understand the difference of these places, unless they have been there themselves. There were WAY too many details for children of those ages to follow and understand.

It's just an absolutely APPALLING book. What a shame; the writer had a good idea but went on to create a literary disaster with it.