Get Up, Stand Up

K-Gr 2–In this anti-bullying story, a group of kids overcome their problems by working together and supporting each other. Much like Marley’s other children’s book adaptations, nearly all the lyrics of Bob Marley’s original song have been changed to make them more relatable to children. Though the message of standing up for your rights still rings true, the correlation between the words and the pictures doesn’t seem as smooth. The new lyrics (“They don’t speak the truth and only want their greedy wish”) accompany a picture of two kids bullying a girl for wearing cat ears, which doesn’t necessarily describe this very real scenario. In another instance, four kids “only thinking for what they care” are dancing while other kids look on in confusion. These kids later get to dance as well, but it’s unclear what happened and how the conflict was resolved. Artwork overall is colorful and bright, which makes the story easy to follow. The variety of ethnicities depicted reflects the universal nature of the original song.