What Will You Be?

All the other children, one tan with a mop of black hair, another Black with natural hair, and a third, white with orange hair, nag the heroine to say what she will be when she grows up. "Clown" and "unicorn" as choices do not satisfy them, so she, with light brown skin and two skinny black braids, goes to her abuela in the art studio where bright paints and pots are lined up. Abuela wisely provides the answer: "Listen." The child listens to her heart and then paints the loftiest of dreams, from building a home that welcomes everyone to walking the roads her ancestors built, from healing bones to mending hearts. The dimension and scale of the answers grow interplanetary, and her abuela reminds her that if she needs help, many hands can accomplish what one person cannot. This is a prayer to personal power, a license to dream big, and permission to keep moving forward, beyond proscribed or limiting roles. In the end, the child and abuela leave the art studio, having finished a giant mural on which some of these plans have been painted. The illustrator's friendly scenes of zeal and cooperation will inspire others to aim high, and the message of the book is delivered lightly, but well. VERDICT Turning a common question of childhood into a substantive quest, this imaginative set of plans will have other children charting their own course through the stars.

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Astronaut, unicorn, and clown are a brown-skinned child’s choices for what to be as an adult. But when a group of friends press, "No, what will you really be?" the child turns to comforting and creative Abuela, "who has been everything under the Sun and the Moon," about how to imagine possibilities for the future. Offering sound, loving advice, "Abuela points to my heart and says, ‘Listen.’ " And a rainbow swirl of paint from Abuela’s brush sweeps readers through pages of verdant outdoor scenes as the child envisions various futures as a builder, a dreamer, a farmer, a healer-taking pride in how each of those roles celebrates community, heritage, and family, and offering readers a greater understanding of the future’s expansive possibilities. Ages 4-8. 

Copyright 2021 Publisher’s Weekly, LLC Used with permission.