Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
As in Cordell's Wish, a pair of animals celebrates the arrival of a child. Two gorillas lean over their new baby's crib; a small arm stretches up out of it. With simple, heartfelt words, the narrator confronts the joy and terror that parenthood brings: "We looked upon you, impossible you, and we felt everything. Who would you be?" An extended dream sequence expresses the child's growing up as the journey of an artist. The child carries a paintbrush everywhere, and as the story progresses, some of the spreads, painted in a rougher, looser style, are meant to represent the child's increasingly accomplished work. "I saw a new you," the gorilla parent says. "Taller. Wiser. Stronger. Strong in body... strong in soul." Animal characters provide a way for illustrators to include all readers, yet using gorillas to represent humans and housing them in a round, thatched hut has uncomfortable echoes. There's no mistaking the text's goodwill, though; Cordell voices the hopes of families with disarming honesty, finding words for feelings that parents can't always articulate. Ages 3-5. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-In a companion to Wish, Cordell again explores the deeply personal relationship between parent and child. Two gorilla parents bring home a new baby and wonder, "Who would you be? Who would we be?" Following is the dream one of these parents has of watching the baby grow and knowing that the child will at some point leave to see the world. The adult foresees that sometimes there will be discovery and sometimes heartache. Softly hued pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations take readers into a natural world that is slightly anthropomorphic with its hut, crib, paintbrushes, and canvases. Colorful, confetti-like swirls radiate off the child, symbolizing all the many possibilities. Through the passage of time, viewers see the young gorilla emerge as an artist and leave home, and learn how the parents "felt everything." Cordell comes full circle as the parent awakens, back with the infant child. In the spirit of Dr. Seuss's Oh, the Places You'll Go!, this is a parent's dream of possibilities, but it offers children the security of unconditional love and support. VERDICT A well-executed message for quieter moments shared one-on-one between a parent and child.-Danielle Jones, Multnomah County Library, OR © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A (gorilla) parent's dream for a child.First-person narration relates the joys and hopes a new parent feels in this offering from Cordell. "We looked upon you, impossible you, and we felt everything," reads the text in an early spread, revealing heartfelt and earnest sentiments about parental love. This tone is undermined, however, by the painterly watercolor-and-ink illustrations of a semianthropomorphized gorilla family rather than a human family or even fully anthropomorphic animals. These gorillas live in furnished grass huts and use tools but go unclothed and walk on their knuckles. Are they gorillas in order to try to engage child readers with a text that is essentially about validating and representing parental love? Perhaps, but the juxtaposition is rather jarring. One gorilla parent is the text's narrator/dreamer, and the dream envisions the child growing and changing, having triumphs and hardships. The child becomes a painter, and at the end of the dream, the parents stand in front of their small hut and wave goodbye as the child (now grown) leaves home with paintbrushes strapped to its back in something like a quiver. In waking life, the parents gaze at their infant in its crib and wonder "what will you dream?" and the book ends with a closing portrait of the family. A sweet book, though it's undermined by character choice. (Picture book. 3-5) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
