Written by Adib Khorram
Illustrated by Michelle Tran
(Dial Books for Young Readers, 2024)
This is a curious book, for the wrong reasons. The title doesn’t match the text, at least not to my satisfaction.
I checked out the book, thinking it would be about poor sportsmanship—yes, winners can be bad sports. I figured it would include a comeuppance, an occasion when the main character must deal with defeat and, in the process, realize it’s not about winning or losing; rather, it’s about playing the game. A great lesson to learn.
I also figured there would be sports involved. Soccer is perennially popular with kids. Maybe some meanness during dodgeball. Perhaps some cheating during hide-and-seek. (Guess who peeks when they’re It.)
But there were no sports. No games. Not even board games or a retro round of Go Fish.
The book isn’t really about a poor sport—not on-the-nose enough for me, at least. Instead, it’s about being boastful. And, in the situations presented, main character Bijan is off the mark when he constantly says, “I win!”
He wins at drawing birds.
He wins at eating vegetables.
He wins at brushing his teeth.
What?
The situations are ones in which a person is more likely to say, “I’m the best!” or “I’m better than you!”
I can swing the highest.
I have the best Matchbox cars.
My painting is better than yours.
Nope. None of that. To Bijan, it’s always, “I win!”
I felt Bijan had some language issues. I wondered if he had cognitive challenges. He also seemed obsessive.
All I wanted was a book on sportsmanship. Kids need that.
Kids also need a book about modesty and toning down boastfulness.
Somehow Bijan Always Wins blends and blurs these topics to the point it is confusing and the point is lost. Really, I should not have been wondering if Bijan has special needs. This is not supposed to be that book.
Part of my letdown comes from having read author Adib Khorram’s vivid and sensitive young adult novel, Darius the Great Is Not Okay.[1] (I gave that book five stars on Goodreads back in 2018.) A promising writer, for sure. Unfortunately, this picture book disappoints.[2]
It’s a head-scratcher. How did this get published by a major publisher? Who did (or didn’t do) the editing? Change the title—e.g., Bijan Boasts—and get more specific (and varied) about boastful phrasing. This could have been a great book, worthy of the digital art by Michelle Tran which is reminiscent of the work of Harry Bliss.
Surely, there’s someone out there feeling boastful: I could write a better book…on boastfulness or on sportsmanship. There is room on library shelves for both.
[1] On the back flap, the YA title is missing a capital for the verb, typed as Darius the Great is Not Okay. Major miss by a major publisher.
[2] It’s only worth a footnote to quibble over specific content. Four of the double-page spreads are devoted to separate dreams Bijan has on a single night. (The books is not supposed to be about dreaming.) One dream would have sufficed. The extra pages might then have at least touched on games or sports.
