National Caribbean American Heritage Month Kid Konnection - Review of “One Love” by Cedella Marley

This book for very young children is adapted by a daughter of Bob Marley from one of his most popular songs. The illustrations by Vanessa Brantley-Newton are bright and cheery and show a diverse collection of people celebrating the joys of cooperation and community.

The song “One Love” expresses these sentiments, and was named “Song Of The Millennium” by the British Broadcasting Corporation….

One love, one heart
Let’s get together and feel all right
As it was in the beginning (One love)
So shall it be in the end (One heart)
Alright, “Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right.”

In her notes at the end of the book, the author explains:

I think everybody has a ‘happy song’ and ‘One Love’ is mine. Yet, in many ways, it’s everybody’s happy song….

When my father sang ‘One Love,’ he felt it all the way – heart and soul, mind and body. He thought a world united by love was possible, and it is. All we’ve got to do, he said, is ‘Give a little, take a little.’ My father wanted people to embrace one another and take care of one another. That was and is the message of ‘One Love.’”

Cedella Marley

Published by Chronicle Books, 2011

Product Details
Hardcover: 32 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1452102244
ISBN-13: 978-1452102245

For more multicultural picture books, check out all the resources at The Birthday Party Pledge, a new website dedicated to promoting gifts of multicultural books to the children in our lives.

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For more reviews of books for children and teens, go to Booking Mama’s feature, Kid Konnection, posted on Saturdays. If you’d like to participate in Kid Konnection and share a post about anything related to children’s books (picture, middle grade, or young adult) from the past week, leave a comment as well as a link on her site.

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