May you love and be loved *wishes for your life

Wade shares gladdening wishes in this benedictive poem accompanied by pen, ink, and watercolor sketches. Titular remarks bookend the speaker's hopes for the reader: "May you love and be loved// May you wonder, wander, and delight." Embracing learning, experience, and more ("And may you be weird. Very Very weird"), openhearted verse addresses emotional highs and lows, offering strength and encouragement. Natural motifs abound in the text ("May you live in awe/ in awe of the moon.... May the sun and her/ tangerine skies/ always feel like a miracle"), while visuals of weather, buzzing bees, nest-building birds, and the like support more conceptual sentiments. The image of a blooming cactus, for example, accompanies, "When the days feel/ long and hard/ May your spirit be/ sweet and strong." Layering on examples and ideas, word and image build to a benevolent vision of a well-lived life. An author's note concludes. Ages 3--6. (May)

Wade urges readers toward bright and loving futures with an extended benediction. Pairing sonorous lines printed in big block letters with spare, delicate watercolor, pen, and ink images of flowers, clouds, balloons, stars, foods, and other generic images, the author of What the Road Said (2021), illustrated by Lucie de Moyencourt, encourages youngsters to follow worthy paths. "May you live in awe / of this amazing planet / spinning in space." "May your body / be your best friend." "May you know fear / but not be driven by it. / May you know joy and follow it / everywhere." If some of the lyrical flights ("May you learn / from the freedom / of wildflowers, / and know beauty that is / born from bravery") may be a bit too lofty, most of Wade's guidelines are clear enough: Be willing to try new things; embrace weirdness ("your superpower"), see and respect others; and, most importantly, "Never give up on love." Aside from a racially and culturally diverse gallery of adult(ish) faces on one spread, human presence in the art is minimal. Just the ticket for graduating seniors and other nest leavers: lyrical and intense, if occasionally a little vague. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.