The Brand New Kid

Millions of American s start their mornings feeling a bit brighter, and much more informed, thanks to Katie Couric. As the co-anchor of the Today show since 1991, Couric has earned a reputation for the warm, intelligent, and personable manner in which she interacts with various guests. As a journalist who serves as a contributing anchor for Dateline NBC, and has hosted a number of primetime news specials, including "Everybody's Business: America's Children," she has also been commended for her sensitive handling of more serious and tragic news stories. Couric, not someone to remain stoic or unmoved by what she is reporting, found herself particularly troubled by the recent headline-making incidents of school violence. These cases, which she feels "can arise from feeling alienated and ostracized," have now inspired her to try to do something about the problem, attempting to reach America's children in the form of a children's book - Couric's first venture as a published author.

A lively, colorful, and often funny story that is certain to entertain while it teaches, Couric's The Brand New Kid offers a heart-felt plea for tolerance to children of all ages. It feature two girls, Ellie McSnelly and Carrie O'Toole, who arrive on the first day of the second grade to find a new student in their class. Lazlo S Gasky looks different, acts different, and talks different, and the kids in the class are soon taunting and teasing him. When Ellie sees his mother crying because she fears she'll have to move Lazlo to another school, the little girl is moved to invite him on a play date. After a wonderful afternoon of strudel, soccer, and chess, the two become fast friends. But Ellie does more than befriend him. When the other kids question how she could pal around with someone as different as Lazlo, rather than turn on him, she openly defends him.

Couric was partly inspired to write the book, she says, by her experiences as a mother to two young daughters. "As a mother watching her two children grow," she says, "I am sometimes reminded of difficult lessons from my own childhood . . . that as loving and wonderful as they are, children can sometimes be cruel." Couric now hopes her new book "will be a springboard for parents, teachers, and children to discuss the importance of accepting people who are different and embracing our similarities."

As a parent who frequently reads to her children, Couric also knows the children's book market. She specifically set out, she says, to write a children's book that would be different from the somber, overly moralistic  books she has seen. Instead, she wanted to create something that would be snappy and fun, while making its point. Her success at achieving that goal is evident right from the book's opening line, one that demonstrates Couric's playful, jazz-like rhymes and rhythms. Conjuring an image that is certain to have parents smiling at memories of the first day of school while their children nod in recognition, she describes her characters' mixed emotions as they enter the classroom: "Ellie McSnelly and Carrie O'Toole/were running and laughing -- their first day of school/ was today! And they wondered just what was in store./Would this be a good year? Would school be bore?" Couric's vibrant language finds a perfect match in the brilliant illustrations by Marjorie Priceman. A Caldecott winner for Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin, and the successful illustrator of 16 books, Priceman's illustrations here are full of color and life.

Couric also succeeds in moving beyond this lighter tone to examine more emotional terrain, as in her description of the difficulties Lazlo faces in school: "So these first weeks were lonely for this brand new kid./They made fun of him, all that he said and he did./ So he kept his head bowed and stopped trying to please/and simply prepared for the next taunt an tease." At the book's end, though, readers of all ages might feel like cheering when Ellie stands up to defend her new friend: "He may look slightly strange, have an accent and stuff,/but if you knew him, you'd like him, it wouldn't be tough." One hopes that such a beautifully expressed and powerful plea for tolerance will be heard by many.

In addition to increasing young people's acceptance of one another, Couric hopes this book might also help others in another important manner. She has announced that a portion of the proceeds will go to colon cancer research and prevention, as a tribute to her husband, Jay Monahan, who died of the disease in 1998 and to whom the book is dedicated.

Demonstrating the very same qualities for which Couric is so well known as a television host, anchor, and interviewer, The Brand New Kid is written with warmth, humor, and sincerity. It is also clearly a book she has written out of love -- for her husband, her two daughters, and for all of America's youth.