1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book!, May 6, 2011
This review is from: When I Grow Up (Hardcover)
The book was written well and the art of the pictures are very creative! Just a great book to always keep. I love buying books for my little one and love reading to him.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nice read-aloud for preschoolers, December 19, 2010
This review is from: When I Grow Up (Hardcover)
I really love the clever, but very large and bright illustrations with the cut-out "clues" to the nest pages. I teach young children and this book has just enough of an idea on each page for preschoolers to understand and follow. There's a nice message about parental love, and also about the connectedness of all living things, but not in a heavy way. This is a very sweet story!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Potential for Greatness, June 20, 2010
This review is from: When I Grow Up (Hardcover)
What will you be when you grow? Adults love asking children this repetitive question in particular, knowing fully well that the answers seldom predict what they actually will be. Most kids give amusing answers. As a kid, the author, born in Minsk in the former Soviet Union, wanted to be an airplane (with two propellers). Years later, he immigrated to the United States and became a writer and an illustrator. His story reminds me of a quote I read in a book of prison literature, where an inmate says, "I write because I can't fly."
The little boy who asks himself this question looks around for inspiration from nature. And since he's willing to listen, nature is willing to talk. The raindrop says it will grow up to be "the fastest river running through the hills". The green sprout will grow up to be "the tallest tree the world has ever seen". The fuzzy caterpillar will one day become a colorful butterfly, the little chick the loudest rooster, the shadow will turn into the gentlest night. He considers all these options but decides in the end that he wants to grow up to be just like his father.
Little kids can choose to emulate the weirdest things. The world has plenty of role models for kids. Gore, through his wonderful illustrations on unframed double-page spreads, reminds the older reader and lets the younger reader know that even the tiniest, seemingly insignificant things could carry potential for greatness. The book is made even more delightful through cut-out windows on alternate pages that give you a glimpse of what's on the next page only for you to turn it to find something completely different. This technique too, is a metaphor for the transformative power of nature and the promises held by every child that could be realized given the right circumstances.
For a student in her last year of college, this book was a refreshing mnemonic encouraging the perspective that life could take any surprise turn and turn out to be great. Often, adulthood conditions us to set realistic limits for ourselves and we remember, with poignant envy, the days when we thought we could be anyone we wanted to be. Though more things become out of reach as we grow up and make more choices, greater possibilities also make themselves appear from nowhere if we are willing to be as observant and ambitious as children are. I hope this book leaves you with the hope that we can do more than we might be willing to give ourselves credit for. And if you share a love for books with your parents and see your father as a role model, it might also make the perfect present for Father's Day.
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