Today I'm Strong

The little girl likes to tell her big toy tiger everything. He always listens, and she knows she can trust him. She tells him she likes school, she loves school, in fact, and she repeats this so many times that we realise there is a problem. In fact she whispers to her tiger that some days she just wants to stay home with him. The problem is Molly. Molly makes fun of the little girl; she blocks her way to the climbing frame and steals her cake. Molly is, in fact, a bully even though the word is not mentioned. Is it because the little girl is black and wears glasses? There are other black children in the class, but it is this particular little girl that Molly picks on. It is the little girl herself who finds the answer, and the answer is in the Tiger – a great big strong tiger – and she discovers how to be strong too. Off she marches to school, fierce Tiger behind her, and when Molly is mean, she ignores her, climbs all the way to the top of the climbing frame and feels ‘top of the world’. ‘It’s not okay to be mean. To make faces. To hold on too tight. To say words that hurt.’ Vivid illustrations and a little girl with attitude make this a winner – as was Nadiya Hussain in the Great British Bake Off. One suspects she writes from experience!