Review: Not Quite Snow White Emphasizes Believing In Yourself Despite Outside Voices

This book gave me deja vu of when I was the lead in my middle school play, Peter Pan.

Being in sixth grade at the time and really young, I heard people saying things like, “I can’t believe she got the part,” and “She can’t handle it. She’s too young.” Sometimes I wondered if they were right, and I wasn’t good enough to be the lead. Really, my performance turned out amazing, and the good memories far outweighed the bad.

Tameika in Not Quite Snow White, by Ashley Franklin, felt the same way I did when she overheard people saying she was “too tall, too chubby,” and “too brown” to be Snow White in her school play. But, with a little encouragement from her parents, Tameika bounced back and learned that she was enough of everything, no matter what people said.

My favorite part of the book was the end, because the author doesn’t say if Tameika gets the part of Snow White… but the illustrations show you!The book iswritten in perfect, relatable kid-like terms. But without Ebony Glenn’s stunning illustrations, I think the story would have been a little bland. (I love her artwork and have interviewed her!)Not Quite Snow White reminds me of Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman. In that book, a Black girl aspires to be Peter Pan in her class play. But, she is told she can’t because she doesn’t look like Peter who most people see as a white boy.The sequel to Not Quite Snow White is called Better Together, Cinderella.So, if you or your child enjoys princess stories, Ashley Franklin is your go-to author!

Four out of four roses!