The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

Morgenstern, Susie

I Will Make Miracles

32 pp. | Bloomsbury | April, 2008 | Trade ISBN 978-1-59990-189-3 $18.95

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Jiang Hong Chen. A child lists all the ways he hopes to change the world--by feeding the hungry, ending war, and stamping out earthquakes. To accomplish these things he acknowledges: "First I should learn to read and write." The rhymed text is occasionally thought-provoking but generally forced. More successful are Chen's Sendak-inspired Chinese-ink on rice paper paintings featuring dramatic shapes and abstract backgrounds.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth