{"id":4546,"date":"2025-10-22T12:59:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T12:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4546"},"modified":"2025-10-22T12:59:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T12:59:00","slug":"book-review-salty-tears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4546","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Salty Tears"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Salty Tears<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Jaime Testaiuti<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> Children\u2019s Picture Book<\/p>\n

ISBN: <\/strong>9798891327900<\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 36 pages<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Atmosphere Press<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reviewed by Erin Britton<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>A heartfelt story about the need for empathy and understanding<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Salty Tears, written by Jaime Testaiuti and illustrated by Nadia Ronquillo, is a meaningful story about recognizing the similarities among people rather than focusing solely on the differences.<\/p>\n

Siblings Ari and Mo are looking forward to going on holiday with their parents. However, Ari is \u201cfeeling nervous because she would be sitting next to the new boy joining her class when they returned.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> Despite the excitement, her nervousness seems to permeate the family\u2019s trip, with both Ari and Mo being beset with concerns and fears about the new people they meet.<\/p>\n

For example, when they decide to visit a museum, after having fun playing in a treehouse and making ice cream sundaes, Mo exclaims \u201cLook at those scary people in sheets!\u201d<\/em><\/strong> And Ari shares his fear: \u201cYou can only see their eyes!\u201d<\/em><\/strong> Fortunately, their mother quells their fear by explaining that the women are wearing hijabs for religious and cultural reasons.<\/p>\n

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Yet later, when the family go to a pizzeria, Ari and Mo notice \u201ca man next to them who looked very old but was as short as they were!\u201d<\/em><\/strong> They wonder aloud what has caused the man to shrink and feel sad that he can barely reach the counter. This time, their mother explains that the man was born that way.<\/p>\n

Ari and Mo have many such encounters during their holiday, including meeting a young girl with no legs, a boy who wears a medical device to monitor his diabetes, a woman with no hair, and a family wearing another kind of religious garb. Each time they question a person\u2019s visible difference, their parents stress that the person is \u201cjust like us and cries salty tears.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Salty Tears uses Ari and Mo\u2019s experiences during their trip to educate young readers about the importance of acceptance and realizing that all people have differences and similarities. It would have been helpful if their parents had pointed out that it is rude to comment on a person\u2019s appearance, but the message of the story is still thoughtful.<\/p>\n

Ari and Mo have lived a rather sheltered life prior to their holiday\u2014most young children will have met people with disabilities, differences, and religious affiliations before\u2014but Jaime Testaiuti does a good job of explaining that their fears come from newness, not necessarily because they are scary. This is a useful lesson for youngsters in a story like this.<\/p>\n

As their parents explain the likely reasons for their new friends\u2019 visible differences, Ari and Mo gain a better understanding of the wide variety of people in the world, and Ari is able to apply this when she returns to school. Testaiuti highlights how everyone has fears and how it is important to learn and show kindness in order to overcome them.<\/p>\n

Some of the explanations that the parents provide, particularly concerning chemotherapy and the treatment for diabetes, cause some pages of Salty Tears to feature a fair bit of text and more complex vocabulary than picture books generally do.<\/p>\n

The accompanying illustrations help to ensure that youngsters\u2019 attention does not wander, however, with Nadia Ronquillo\u2019s bright and appealing art showing what Ari and Mo initially perceive and then how their perspective changes as they learn more about people. The vibrant pictures really capture the imagination and will likely prompt interesting discussions.<\/p>\n

Salty Tears is a sincere and charmingly illustrated story about the dangers of pre-judgement and allowing fear to take hold before knowing the truth about a situation. As Ari and Mo learn more about the importance of diversity, equality, and inclusion, young readers will also learn the same valuable lessons.<\/p>\n

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Thank you for reading Erin Britton\u2019s book review of Salty Tears <\/em>by Jaime Testaiuti! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.<\/p>\n

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The post Book Review: Salty Tears<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Salty Tears by Jaime Testaiuti Genre: Children\u2019s Picture Book ISBN: 9798891327900 Print Length: 36 pages Publisher: Atmosphere Press Amazon Bookshop Reviewed by Erin Britton A heartfelt story about the need for empathy and understanding Salty Tears, written by Jaime Testaiuti and illustrated by Nadia Ronquillo, is a meaningful story about recognizing the similarities among people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4546"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}