Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem

Gr 1-3–A celebrated young poet and perennially bestselling illustrator pair up to invite readers on a musical celebration of change. Building a story on Gorman’s declamatory lines—“I can hear change humming/ In its loudest, proudest song./ I don’t fear change coming,/ And so I sing along”—in typically polished, romanticized scenes, Long follows a small Black child carrying a big, beautifully decorated guitar as she gathers a thoroughly diverse group of young musicians to clean up a neatly littered playground, build a ramp for a child in a wheelchair, offer a meal to a homeless mom and son, and finally march beneath a huge urban mural. It proclaims, “We are the change.” “I don’t make a taller fence,” the poet writes, “But fight to build a better bridge.” Readers will have to look elsewhere for leads to specific ways and means, but Gorman’s soaring appeal to “sing along” joins a long chorus of like calls and may kindle a fresh spate of young social activists.