The Queen on our Corner by Lucy Christopher illustrated by Nia Tudor

Begin with the title - the queen (clearly from the cover this is not image of a queen); our corner - so this is set in a familiar neighborhood. Our not the corner. Think about a shared responsibility to help others. 

"I've been trying to tell Ma about the Queen on our corner. She's right there at the end of our road, in the plot of land that never got built on. ... I didn't notice her before either. Like everyone else, I just walked by."

After she warns the people in the town of a dangerous fire late at night things change.

"The people on our street stop and look. And then they see her. They thank the Queen finally. They give her water and blankets but I know what she wants best is her own palace."

Well not a real palace - just a home. 

Blurb: Nobody notices the unhoused woman on the corner. Nobody, that is . . . except one young girl. Through her eyes, the woman who dwells in the abandoned plot is a warrior queen, with many battles fought and won. When, one day, danger comes to the street and the queen on the corner sounds the alarm, the little girl must find a way to thank her. Can she bring the community together to turn the queen's corner into a home?

This book is an Empathy Lab title. And you could use it to talk about two of the Sustainable Development Goals - 1. No Poverty and 2. Zero Hunger.

I don't always notice dedications but this one from the author is poignant: "To those who see Queens."

The Queen on our Corner is available in paperback so it is title you could consider purchasing for your school library. 

This hopeful tale uses a youthful view of the world to imagine what our society could be like if all people and their experiences were valued and respected, though it leaves caregivers on the hook for explaining to justice-seeking children why the story’s resolution is unlikely in real life. The illustrations match the innocence of the text. Kirkus

The little girl believes the people on her street haven’t noticed the queen and it isn’t until the end of the story, when the queen is hailed as a heroine, that the people ‘see her.’ This would be an interesting theme to explore with children. Is it actually the case that people haven’t seen her? Why might they walk by the queen and not acknowledge her? What does it mean to ‘see’ someone? Should a person, homeless or not, need to prove their worth to be accepted? Just Imagine

Companion books:

Home for Grace

I saw Pete and Pete saw me

This Old Man

The Invisible

It's a no money day

Here are some other books illustrated by Nia Tudor: