ACCESS DIGITIZED EDITION
Guide/Reviews Database
PRESCHOOL
Robinson, Christian

You Matter

40 pp. | Atheneum | June, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-1-5344-2169-1 $17.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-5344-2170-7 $10.99
(1) PS No saccharine self-esteem book, this is a powerful affirmation of each reader's worth. Robinson's text is loaded with child appeal ("When everyone thinks you're a pest. / When everyone is too busy to help. / You matter"); kid-level humor ("Even if you are really gassy. / You matter"); and profound observations ("Sometimes you feel lost and alone. / But you matter"). The repetition of the titular phrase is extremely effective; by book's end, you can't help but believe it. Striking acrylic and collage illustrations take us on a compressed journey through time and space. We meet creatures from Earth's distant past (fish walking out of a primordial sea; dinosaurs) and then head out into space, where a meteor hurtles toward Earth ("If you have to start all over again..."). Still in space, we move to the present, with an astronaut, a Black woman, holding a photo of a child and gazing longingly toward Earth, where (as we see after the page-turn) her child is missing her ("Sometimes someone you love says goodbye"). The book comes to rest in a vibrant city, one full of color and movement and of people "old and young," and wraps up with a scene of promise and possibility, as a young boy gazes out his window at the busy world outside and, one feels, the future.
Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2020

RELATED 

PRESCHOOL

The Farmer and the Circus
by Frazee, Marla
PRESCHOOL

Bird House
by Gómez, Blanca
PRESCHOOL

The Crow and the Peacock
by Fernihough, Jo
PRESCHOOL

Something's Wrong!
by John, Jory
PRESCHOOL

Grandpa Across the Ocean
by Yum, Hyewon
More

Get connected. Join our global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?