The Wonderful Things You Will Be

by Emily Winfield Martin

Overview

The New York Times bestseller that celebrates the dreams, acceptance, and love that parents have for their children . . . now and forever! 
 
From brave and bold to creative and clever, Emily Winfield Martin's rhythmic rhyme expresses all the loving things that parents think of when they look at their children. With beautiful, and sometimes humorous, illustrations, and a clever gatefold with kids in costumes, this is a book grown-ups will love reading over and over to kids—both young and old. A great gift for any occasion, but a special stand-out for baby showers, birthdays, and graduation. The Wonderful Things You Will Be has a loving and truthful message that will endure for lifetimes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780375973277
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	08/25/2015
Pages:	36
Sales rank:	145,352
Product dimensions:	9.60(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

EMILY WINFIELD MARTIN sketches, paints, and stitches to create imaginary worlds and characters. She is the author/illustrator of The Black Apple's Paper Doll Primer. Her store, The Black Apple, has been featured in national publications and on TV shows, including the New York Times and The Martha Stewart Show. Emily lives among the giant fir trees of Portland, Oregon, with her fellow adventurer, Josiah, and their cat Miette. Visit her online at BlackApple.typepad.com or Etsy.com/shop/theblackapple.

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/11/2015
The wealth of possibilities contained within even the tiniest child is the subject of Martin’s (Day Dreamers) love letter from parent to offspring: “When you were too small/ To tell me hello,/ I knew you were someone/ I wanted to know.” This potential can be seen in everything children do, from working in a garden (“Will you learn what it means/ To help things to grow?”) to bandaging a toy bear. The book concludes with a double gatefold, drawn as a proscenium-style curtain, that reveals a group of eccentrically costumed children (a robot, a pencil, a log) to represent the idea of becoming “anybody/ That you’d like to be.” Martin’s characters generally exhibit a preternatural sense of self-possession, but this book’s subject matter adds another layer of meaning to the poised poker faces on display. Her children are so serious (even when swinging on a swing) and so unflappable (even when tailoring a pair of pants for a squirrel) that they convey not just hope for the future, but a sense of manifest destiny. Ages 3–7. Agent: Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Her children are so serious… and so unflappable… that they convey not just hope for the future, but a sense of manifest destiny.” — Publishers Weekly starred review

“Sweet but not saccharine and singsong but not forced, Martin's text is one that will invite rereadings as it affirms parental wishes for children while admirably keeping child readers at its heart.”
—Kirkus starred review

From the Publisher

06/01/2015
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.—Martha Link Yesowitch, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, NC

School Library Journal

★ 2015-06-06
A love song to baby with delightful illustrations to boot. Sweet but not saccharine and singsong but not forced, Martin's text is one that will invite rereadings as it affirms parental wishes for children while admirably keeping child readers at its heart. The lines that read "This is the first time / There's ever been you, / So I wonder what wonderful things / You will do" capture the essence of the picture book and are accompanied by a diverse group of babies and toddlers clad in downright adorable outfits. Other spreads include older kids, too, and pictures expand on the open text to visually interpret the myriad possibilities and hopes for the depicted children. For example, a spread reading "Will you learn how to fly / To find the best view?" shows a bespectacled, school-aged girl on a swing soaring through an empty white background. This is just one spread in which Martin's fearless embrace of the white of the page serves her well. Throughout the book, she maintains a keen balance of layout choices, and surprising details—zebras on the wallpaper behind a father cradling his child, a rock-'n'-roll band of mice paralleling the children's own band called "The Missing Teeth"—add visual interest and gentle humor. An ideal title for the baby-shower gift bag and for any nursery bookshelf or lap-sit storytime. Wonderful, indeed. (Picture book. 1-4)

Kirkus Reviews