My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay

Wonderful story

My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay, is an inspiring story about a young girl who believes she can and tries. I got this book to read to my 1st grade students. Not only does the book feature multicultural characters in strong roles, Zulay also demonstrates a growth mindset. Zulay also is in 1st grade.

So nice to see a children's book hip and new around the topic of visual impairment. Great for orientation and mobility instructors!

Children start noticing differences among themselves at a very early age, and so I greatly appreciated reading this book. The books that I've read about diversity or varying abilities have often othered their subjects in a not so helpful way. Cari Best has produced a very useful and fun teaching tool with this book. Zulay is not only a racial minority, but she is also a blind student in a class of seeing students. This makes her an incredibly marginalized character. This is important to understand because when talking about disabilities, the narratives of children of color are often kept in the shadows. I've never seen this type of children's book before. I found the content to be very useful in capturing the complex experience of a child with a disability in a school where the majority of students are able bodied. The story was slightly idealistic as Zulay has a strong group of friends, goes to a school where there are professional staff with the skills to teach blind students, and she doesn't face bullying. Those narratives are common among students with different abilities. This idealistic story lines seems as though it's due to the fact that Zulay attends a seemly wealthy private school that can accommodate her needs. She has kind, racially diverse friends who accept her. She has great teachers that motivate and support her. Her story would most definitely have differed if her character went to a school with less economic resources. But what I found important was that her character struggles with accepting her own status as being labeled as "disabled". She can't accept being othered and made different by her teachers and her peers. It's also highlighted that she has different strengths in comparison to the other students: She's strong at math and writing, while she struggles at drawing shapes. I found that important because like anyone, people have strengths and weaknesses, but they shouldn't be defined by them. Zulay is still as bright as her classmates even though she struggles at capturing visual practicum. Best brought the book to a great conclusion with Zulay finally finding her own strength and confidence as she runs the race she dreams of. I appreciated the language that Best uses. The language captures has children speak about themselves, their, peers, and adults. It is also very poet at times. The illustrations by Vanessa Brantley-Newton, beautifully capture the playfulness of the written word.

Summary: Zulay enjoys first grade with her three best friends. Even though she’s blind, she can do almost everything the other kids do. She doesn’t like it when she has to leave the class to work with Ms. Turner, who helps her learn to use a cane. But she does like writing on her Braille typewriter, learning math with manipulatives, and singing and dancing on the playground with Maya, Nancy, and Chyng. When the teacher announces an upcoming field day, Zulay is as enthusiastic as her classmates, and decides she wants to run a race. The class is silent when she makes that announcement, but Ms. Turner is confident Zulay can do it and works with her every day to get her ready. When the big day comes, Zulay runs around the track with Ms. Turner and joyfully breaks through the ribbon at the finish line. Ages 4-9Pros: Readers will be interested to see how this exuberant girl participates in everything that interests her even though she can’t see. The author wrote this story after seeing a visually impaired girl thriving in a first-grade classroom at a New York City public school.Cons: An awkward title.

Visually impaired adult here, and I love this book! It would be perfect for kids who are struggling to accept their differences. Zulay is going through a process that almost all blind/VI kiddos go through at some point; she just wants to fit in and be "normal".I did take off a star, because the story feels a bit long for young readers. Most blind kids will already be using their cane by Zulay's age, so the exact scenario will only fit some students. That said, it's a great message! I also notice that the friend group isn't featured much. It's more about Zulay. I feel like the name is a bit misleading for that reason. (Better descriptors might be "Zulay Runs" or "Zulay's Cane"A great book and well worth a read!

My kids love this book and I enjoy reading it - the words have a lovely rhythm and I like the diversity shown in the main characters.

A inspirational book, best for 4+