FICTION

The Wonderful Things You Will Be

by Emily Winfield MARTIN
illus. by Emily Winfield Martin. 36p. ebook available. Random. Aug. 2015. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780385376716; lib. ed. $20.99. ISBN 9780375973277. LC 2014023314.
COPY ISBN
PreS—Childhood is a time full of potential, and Martin celebrates this promise in this work. The general premise of Dr. Seuss's classic, Oh, The Places You'll Go is pared down to elegant simplicity. "Will you stand up for good/By saving the day?/Or play a song only you/Know how to play?" While the rhyming text falters a bit in spots, the word choice overall is spare, inspiring, and accessible to preschoolers. Children are encouraged to be kind, clever, and bold, to take care of the small, and to help things grow. Martin's oil paintings have the same retro, mid-century feel as her other illustrations, with large-eyed children of many ethnicities playing, gardening, and sharing together.
VERDICT A go-to gift for new parents, and a potential bedtime favorite for many children.
Reviewed by Martha Link Yesowitch, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, NC
An unseen narrator addresses the young reader, promising that the narrator will love whoever it is that the child grows up to be. Soft paintings of a bucolic world populated by creative, attractive children of various ages and ethnicities accompany a sentimental rhyming text. The well-meaning but ultimately bland narrative is carried by Martin's charmingly old-fashioned artistic style.
 , Jun 01, 2015

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