As I don’t have kids, and probably never will, I don’t focus a great deal of my time on kids books (Philip Reeve’s work being the usual exception). However, I thought this one warranted some attention, because it’s such an uncommon thing. Annaka Harris has written a book about the joy of realizing you don’t know something. No, it’s not a book that celebrates ignorance. It celebrates recognizing the ends of your knowledge and the beginnings of your quest to learn. It’s a book that lets a child (and adult) know that it’s OK to say, “I don’t know;” to wonder. Wonder is how it all begins.
The art by John Rowe is gorgeous, and intensely colorful. It’s somehow impressionist, but with a photographic quality, and is really something to look at. It features the kind of images I’d have been absolutely lost in as a child. This is the sort of visually striking thing I always craved, and rarely found. The stuff that propelled me in to wanting to read more, to learn more, and to create more. Pictures like these were inspirational when it came to early attempts at writing and at art.
For parents who want to encourage their children to learn, to quest for knowledge, to admit they don’t know the right answer (and to try to find out what is the right answer), this is a great pick. And honestly, how many kids books have a recommendation from a physics & astronomy professor on the back?
I Wonder
Author: Annaka Harris
Art: John Rowe
Publisher: Four Elephants Press
ISBN: 978-1-940051-04-8
-Matt
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