Customer Reviews

Wishes for You

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A lovely and inspiring children's book with gorgeous illustrations that all children will love. I bought two more for the children in my family. Highly recommended!

Tobi Tobias has written a little gem, a picture book that is poetic but utterly straightforward. WISHES FOR YOU consists of a series of wishes for the future of a much loved young child.("I hope you will love to read. . . I hope you will love being alone sometimes.") Danish artist Henry Sorensen's accompanying illustrations feature lush colors and realistic renderings of approachable-looking children being wistful, playful or intent on a task. This book would make an excellent gift for a child under five.

Tobi Tobias, mother of two and grandmother of four, has been writing gentle, reassuring books for children for many years that stress the values that make families work and children feel secure. With Wishes for You, she succinctly and poetically creates a road map for the life of a child, wishing her or him--this book is for children, not boys or girls--the happiness of being alive, of loving one special person, of feeling your body move--understandable since Tobias is a prominent dance critic-- of being creative. Each wish stresses individualism in universal terms, the most compelling of which are"I hope you will know what you think and feel and not let other people tell you" and "I hope you will love being alone sometimes." These and the rest of the wishes in this book are ones I had for my own daughter at the time of her birth 27 years ago. Danish artist Henri Sorensen's illustrations are more than that: each painting particularizes a general wish: "I hope you will love to read" shows an Asian child with a book, a stuffed hippo, a live cat, a globe;"I hope you will never forget how to be silly" is illustrated with seven blond blue-eyed kids pretty clearly giggling as they pull one of their number in a cart. I like the multicultural approach taken by both the author and the illustrator and hope Wishes for You is read to and by many many children.

Ideal picture books for very young children--as difficult to compose as lyric poems--appeal to three kinds of readers: the very young child to whom it is introduced, the adult who usually repeats that introduction many times (including at moments of high anxiety or exhaustion), and the child several years later, who is capable of re-reading the book independently. Picture books that appeal to a fourth kind of reader--the grown-up child who looks back to his or her infant library for books to read to a new generation--are what we mean by "classics."
In this last sense, "Wishes for You," freshly published, is a classic waiting to happen. It is written with a purity and dignity of expression that both children and adults (grandparents included) will grasp right away and illustrated with a gentle figuration that is captivating and, sometimes, heartbreaking. This book of "I-wish-for-you"s offers immediate affection to youngsters as well as a plangent element of memory to older ones: it works on the level of "Now!" and of then. Also, the nature of wishing, itself, is presented, quite unusually, as an aspect of human development, rather than, more conventionally, as a pendant to human vanity. Although all the lovely spreads are instantly available to every stage of emotional maturation in reading, no pairing of words and picture is emotionally predictable. Even on many re-readings, the book has wisdom to spare. A treasure.

My super handed me WISHES FOR YOU as I was going to the subway.
While reading it on the subway, I did not start weeping until:
"I hope you will love one special person more than anyone or
anything in the whole world," and then I did not stop weeping
until long after I finished the book and got off the train at
Queensboro Plaza. The not-starting weeping until that late
in the book was a commendable sign of self-restraint, I think,
considering how moving, authentic, and wonderful WISHES FOR YOU is.

This beautiful picture book is filled with wishes that parents hope will come true for their children. Some of those wishes are I hope you will always be curious and I hope you will always be a part of a family. Reading this book to your child will let them know of all the love you have for them with in your heart. Wishes for You would make a great bedtime story for kids of all ages.

I love reading this book to my 3 year old son! I still manage to tear up every time I read this book to him. I would highly recommend this book

I received this book as a gift when my first son was born and have given it to new parents and grandparents as a gift ever since. The illustrations are beautiful and the text will take your breath away!

This is a wonderful book for grandparents, aunts, uncles, or anyone close to the family to give as a gift to a new baby. I gave this book to my sister when her first son was born and wrote an inscription in the book stating that I had all of these wonderful wishes for my nephew. The inscription along with the book brought tears to my sister's eyes.

The first time I read this to my 2 little boys, I cried my eyes out. I have a 20 month old son & a 4 month old son, so this book really tugged at my heartstrings without being over the top mushy. The thought of my little guys growing up so fast makes me sad for me; but excited at the prospect of what they'll be when they grow up...all the possibilities life will offer them. Bottom line this book says it all, exactly what any parent would wish for their children, the simple joys of life and to let them know how deeply they are loved. I highly recommend this book to anyone with children and also to any parent-to-be, what a beautiful gift this would make, the illustrations are lovely and with each turn of the page you too will be reaching for a tissue.