It is so important to talk to children at a young age to not judge anyone before you get to know them, for whatever reason. We should give our children the chance to make their own conclusions about those they meet without the prejudice of adults or others. On the Playground was a great book that teaches children to play with everyone on the playground in a gentle way. I have found that some books on this topic actually bring more to the front than actual teach how to address prejudice to children, that was not the case with this title. I really enjoyed reading this to my own children and those in my homeschool co-op. Thank you for the opportunity to read the advanced copy.

On the Playground is a non-fiction title that introduces children to the ways in which prejudice can be hurtful and damaging. In an afterword, the author states: "When I was growing up, it was common to see other kids being bullied...Much to my shame, I remember doing nothing...I encourage all readers of this book to make better choices than I did." The author wrote this book to help children understand and do better.

This is an informational text. It does not have a fictional story line. There are illustrations that are multi-cultural and multi-contextual. There is a hybrid of what seems like a read aloud with other sections that are related and instructional.

To this reader, the book did not seem like one that a child would pick up and read but more one that would be part of a discussion in a school setting. While I admired what the author hoped to, and does in many ways accomplish, I found the book to be a bit dry. Using this book as a jumping off point for discussion makes sense to me.

Interesting and entertaining way to approach the topic of bullying and prejudice. Great use of pictures and illustrations. Good use of vocabulary to explain terms. Read and discuss with kids.

I have been very impressed with this series as a whole, and this new title is perfect for the world we live in. It's about prejudice that can be seen at school, at the playground, at home. The author does a great job describing what is prejudice and other hot words that are thrown around. She makes them easy to understand, and easy to talk about. I also really like that she says it's something passed down, sometime unintentionally. This is a perfect book for any library, and it is sorely needed in our communities today.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A decent conversation starter for adults wanting to talk to children about prejudice by defining it and writing about it in greater detail (why it happens and what can you do) with a brief example to begin the discussion.

This book introduces the concept of prejudice with bright illustrations and beautiful photographs. After reading with my 7 year old, I think the flow of the book was a little wonky with the kid’s questions and the adult’s answer format causing the book to stop and start. The vocabulary found in this is probably a little more advanced than it should be for kids who are just learning about prejudice. I appreciate expanding children’s vocabularies but I think less is more in this case and simpler words would make it easier to stay on the topic at hand. It was difficult to know if my daughter got the gist of the book because we repeatedly stopped to define other concepts like exclusivity.

Overall, it was a good read. My daughter seems to understand what prejudice is and why it’s wrong after finishing. Plus, we started a vocabulary list with all the new words she discovered. I recommend this one to upper elementary students and their caregivers.

It is not easy to rate this book. It's important to have books about bullies and prejudice at school but I feel like this one is too abstract and too hard to read for children. The book is composed of two different kinds of texts: a short and easy-to-read part with dynamic questions to the reader, and a very dense and abstract part uses to define complex words that is too hard for children to understand.

I didn't feel like the rhythm of the book was well structured either. A kid is bullied at school, and the discussion about what to do only comes in the final pages of the book. It is also not easy for kids to understand words like 'prejudice', 'harassment', 'ageism', even if their are explained.

There is an interview in one column of Sophie Kamlish. I feel that instead of saying "she inspired one of our characters from the book", it would have been easier for kids to simply put a drawing of her next to the interview. It is not easy for kids or for adults to remember which person they are talking about.

Overall, I feel like the book needs to be more straightforward to deliver answers about what is bullying/prejudice, what to do when you notice it, what to do when you suffer from it, and how to practice being more tolerant to people different from us. The book also really needs to simplify its definition, which are more at the level of a high school student right now.

I appreciated the diversity in the photography, portraying children with disabilities, children of colors, and same-sex parents.

Dr. Roberts does a wonderful job approaching the difficult subject of prejudice. Told through the eyes of a spectator, Dr. Roberts highlights the different ways that prejudice can manifest itself in a child's life. Explored through question and answer narration, prejudice becomes personal. The book includes many ways of addressing and approaching prejudice that a child could use on the playground. This would be a great addition to a classroom setting where the teacher or counselor could integrate activities to further connect the book to their lives.

How do you teach children not to bully, not to make fun of other kids, and to be kind? This book takes an honest shot at it, that is for sure.

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Bullying is not helped by the current state of affairs with the American President using course language and bullying himself. When people in authority make it ok to bully and such, it is hard to explain to children that this is not normal, and they should not make fun of others for their differences.

For that, the book does a good job. The examples given are clear, as are the situations. My problem with giving it a three instead of a four or five star is that I don’t feel engaged. I feel as though I am being lectured to. The points are all valid, but I think they are a little pushy.


Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was just okay for me. I think it's good to explain these things to kid, but in my opinion it didn't break it down enough into kid terms. There was a lot of text which makes it harder for some younger kids to focus. There were a lot of photographs where I think drawings would have been a better choice.

This was such a wonderful and in-depth introduction of prejudice for elementary aged children. I love how it has both illustrations and photos and it does a great job of covering so many important topics, including racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and ableism. Our kids have had a lot of great questions lately about many of these issues and it was a perfect introduction and helped create some great conversations at our house. Thank you Netgalley and Orca Books for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.