Tayra’s Not Talking

Tayra’s Not Talking, by Lana Button (author of the “Willow” series), a new addition to the Kitty and friends series (My Teacher’s Not Here! www.cmreviews.ca/node/175)
and What if Bunny’s Not a Bully? www.cmreviews.ca/node/1613), deals with the concept of inclusion through the examples of social and emotional issues of being a new student as well as having a new student in the class.

Tayra is new to the school, and she doesn’t want to speak. Her classmates try to be friendly at first, but Tayra just won’t reply or verbally acknowledge their efforts to get to know her. Soon enough, the classmates begin to think that Tayra is just rude and won’t even apologize for knocking Hedgie down to the ground. Kitty, however, believes otherwise because she observes from the expression on Tayra’s face and from her actions that she is sorry. Will the class learn how some students may choose to express themselves in ways other than just verbal communication?

Tayra’s Not Talking is a tale about understanding that there are alternative forms of communication and that friendships can be built on empathy. Often, there are many reasons why a student is not communicating verbally, but observation, empathy, and kindness can help resolve misunderstandings and misconceptions of people.
The illustrations are carefully hand-drawn and coloured with digital collages. Battuz adds repeating patterns in her digital collages to help colour her drawings. Cool colour tones are used throughout the background of the book to show the feeling of isolation, and warm colour tones are used for the cartoon drawn animal characters to reflect how it is people who can make an inclusive environment. Battuz’s illustrations complement the text to show how inclusion is something that is achieved as a group and through our actions, not through the things around us.

Overall, Tayra’s Not Talking is a beautifully illustrated empathetic story about inclusion for primary-age children who may have or will encounter instances of nonverbal communication. This title is a great addition to social emotion learning collection