Carla’s Glasses by Debbie Herman & Sheila Bailey

It’s so uncommon to find a book that perfectly captures both exuberance and empathy as well as Carla’s Glasses does! And especially in so few pages, and in a way that’s perfect for readers of all ages.

Carla is one of those rare but delightful grade schoolers who loves standing out. When her teacher Ms Pimento announces that everyone will be getting a vision test from the school nurse next Monday, she’s super excited. As she tells her classmate and good friend Buster, she hopes she’ll need glasses so that she can be the only kid in class who has them.

Over the course of the next few days, she comes to school with brand new “glasses” she’s constructed from various craft materials. She gleefully discusses them with all the other students, as they consider which ones suit her best.

The day of the vision test arrives and Carla is amped up about possibly missing one of the letters. The next day, however, brings only disappointment. According to the nurse, Carla’s eyesight is just fine. The only person who needs glasses is Buster, and he is not happy about it at all.

Unlike Carla, Buster hates standing out. Carla tries to cheer him up by accompanying him to the optometrist’s and helping him pick out his frames. But he’s really unhappy about being the only kid in their class who has to wear glasses at all. Kind-hearted Carla doesn’t know what to do… until, that is, she goes home and is inspired by her own hand-crafted glasses to help make life better for Buster.

Carla just might be the sweetest and somehow most practical fictional child I know! Her own resilience is exemplary in the face of disappointment, and her determination to help her friend feel better about being different is truly outstanding. There’s a valuable lesson in here about both friendship and solidarity, and how not getting what you want doesn’t mean that you should stop caring about others or stop trying to meet them where they are. Carla might love standing out but she’s also well aware that that’s not what works for everyone. Note that she never exhorts Buster to be more like herself but genuinely listens to his feelings and comes at the problem from his perspective, not her own. It’s clear that her desire to be different doesn’t come from either self-centeredness or insecurity: she just knows that it’s okay to like things and to be excited about them. She also knows that she doesn’t need to pull focus all the time, and that her own kindness and generosity will always ensure that she’s the heroine of not just her own life story but of the chapters of many others’. Her ability to get everyone else in her class involved in supporting Buster is a terrific example of her leadership capabilities, too. If Carla were a real person, I strongly suspect that she’d be running the world for the better once she grows up.

Sheila Bailey’s art perfectly illustrates this delightful tale. A combination of watercolor and digital media, the expressive illustrations favor energy over prettiness, adorably complementing the story and reinforcing the fact that spirit matters just as much as conventional attributes when it comes to attractiveness.

Truly, this is a phenomenal kids’ book and one that should be in every library. Debbie Herman is brilliant, even without the excellent eyeball sticker joke. Carla is an amazing fictional kid, who will hopefully inspire loads of real kids to embrace both authenticity and consideration of others.

Carla’s Glasses by Debbie Herman & Sheila Bailey was published September 3 2024 by Flashlight Press and is available from all good booksellers, including