Review of The Diary of a Rising son

[Christell Lindeque]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Diary of a Rising son" by Chinenye I. Ubah.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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Chinenye I. Ubah's The Diary of a Rising Son is a book to help kids who feel like they are being discriminated against because of the colour of their skin. The protagonist of this book is a young boy of colour who writes in his diary about his experiences of being treated differently because of his skin tone.

The author uses a boy who expresses his feelings about being excluded from group activities, bullied by other children, and ignored by adults in his diary. The book is written in the style of entries from a diary, and it even includes the dates. The number of illustrations was less than usual for a children's book, but the book still seemed to get its point across just fine. They were also brightly coloured, which is sure to appeal to kids. The book ends with some questions meant to get the reader thinking about how to handle the situations they've encountered themselves or what they've read about in the book.

The more I read, the more my heart broke for the boy in this book. Nobody should be treated differently simply due to the fact that they have a different appearance. Due to the book's intended audience, I would have preferred a milder swear word or none at all. When I read the book, I also noticed that the titles of the diary entries were not the same throughout. Although the book's disappointing conclusion bothered me, I decided not to dock points because its primary focus was on assisting kids.

Having a child deliver the book's message was brilliant and made the entire thing that much more moving to me. The diary entries added a personal touch and helped get the book's message across. I thought it was great that someone took the initiative to write a book with the explicit goal of assisting young readers in navigating the difficulties he mentions.

This book gets 4 out of 5 stars from me. The book's profanity bothered me, and I hope that parents who buy it will consider scratching out those two occurrences I found if their kids are too young to read them. Despite the profanity, I think kids would benefit from reading this book about a character who has trouble fitting in as an immigrant or in society in general. The book has been flawlessly edited; I didn't find a single mistake in it.

This book will help many children of colour who deal with daily discrimination because of the colour of their skin. There is one swear word mentioned more than once in the book, so I feel obligated to warn parents.

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The Diary of a Rising son
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[Elina Tshabalala]

I cannot even begun to imagine how this discrimination will impact this kid's life. If only people knew or cared enough to be tolerant of each other. Thanks for the reviee

[Odichimma Okoye]

We do not control our genetic expressions and traits and so no one should be discriminated against simply for being too brown or too white. I still can't make sense of the motives behind discrimination. A children's book without an adequate amount of illustrations for the kids to enjoy wouldn't hit the same. It's tragic but it would teach children to be empathetic and unbiased.

[The Keeper Jr]

It seems very simple when someone talks about it, but in fact it's really hard. Especially the kids who experience those kind of hate every single day. Books like this one are a motivation for the children i would say. It's a great help. Thanks alot for reviewing this amazing book. Great job!