My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay

The importance of friendship and perseverance

My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay by Cari Best and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton is a beautiful book that highlights the importance of bravery and persistence, while crafting an incredibly diverse array of characters. The book follows Zulay, a first grader, who is blind and learning how to use her cane. It's an uplifting story that will surely spark conversation within your classroom about ability and perseverance. Though it's packed with great content, it is a bit long and could be broken into two readings for younger students, who may not be able to sit for the full story.

The gist:

The first half of the book highlights Zulay and her friends as they go about their day at school. They skip down the hall together and help each other with math and writing during class. Then, Zulay's special education teacher comes to help her tackle her "fold-ing, hold-ing, cold-ing cane." Zulay is reluctant to take on the challenge of learning how to use her cane, but she dives in when she decides that she would like to race in her "new pink shoes" in a Field Day event. It's not easy, but after weeks of hard work and perseverance, Zulay runs in the race as her friends cheer her on.

My favorite part(s):

Zulay's disability isn't her only character trait! I know, the bar is on the floor, but the truth is that in books and media, a character's disability is often painted to be their only defining feature. Zulay is a full fledged character in this book and it is never explicitly mentioned that she is blind! Instead, readers are given clues, like the cane she holds on the cover, or the fact that she often relies on her sense of smell and her hearing. This presents Zulay as a person, not a disability. This narrative is so important in that lets students know that a person cannot be defined by one thing.

Also, the Braille alphabet is featured on the book's back cover! The letters of the Braille alphabet are actually raised so students can really feel what reading Braille is like. Students may not have an understanding of what Braille is before reading the book, and this feature can help them understand it.

What you can do:

This book lends itself so well to having a thoughtful conversation about our differences! Identity is a great topic to talk about in all grade levels and can lead to some very necessary discussions. It's very important to talk about tricky topics like ability or race with our elementary schoolers. However, it's essential that we talk about these topics in developmentally appropriate ways so that students are able to understand. Teaching Tolerance is a great resource to use to tackle all sorts of tricky topics with younger students. You can sort texts and activities by grade level and various topics including ability and identity. For example, this page at Teaching Tolerance has some good suggestions of activities to do with elementary schoolers when having a conversation about sight and blindness. My personal favorite activity that they suggest is to have students write in Braille using Elmer's Glue or puffy paint. The glue or puffy paint will dry, leaving raised marks. For younger students, you could write out their names in Braille and then have them "trace" it by putting marks where you did. This seems like a fun and engaging activity that would help students understand how people with visual impairments can still "see" and understand the world around them.

Happy Reading!