The Plans I Have For You

September 7, 2015
For Christian children wondering what God has in store for them, Parker (My Christmas List) offers a playfully reassuring rhyme, written from the perspective of an enthusiastic deity. The focus is on future careers ("I need you in a hospital/ and you at the zoo./ You'll be an entomologist/ in a forest in Peru"), though a spread in which four children peruse a Bible is decorated with words like "patience" and "kindness," emphasizing altruistic values. Brantley-Newton (My Three Best Friends and Me, Zulay) draws from an array of visual influences in her always energetic illustrations. In one early scene, a hand points out at readers from a cloud, like an Uncle Sam recruitment poster; elsewhere, children sit on an assembly line (which stretches over several pages) as robot arms outfit them with stethoscopes, musical instruments, and other gear. Parker's meter can be slightly shaky, and there's an overreliance on certain rhymes (you/do gets a workout, in particular), but the encouraging tone, range of careers represented, and ethnically diverse cast create the sense that the sky's the limit. Ages 4â8. Author's agency: Working Title Agency. Illustrator's agent: Lori Nowicki, Painted Words.

June 15, 2015
God's address to the Hebrew exiles from the Old Testament book of Jeremiah is repurposed in this cheery picture book that emphasizes children's future careers.In this decontextualized interpretation of the well-known verse, God narrates the text in a first-person, chatty style ("Hey, YOU!") that urges children to discover their particular purposes in life, specifically related to career choices ("what I CREATED YOU to do"). The story begins with a fantastical factory in the clouds, controlled by engineers, and the disembodied hand of God pointing at readers. A sort of assembly line with seated, staring children scrolls across the bottoms of the pages, with the boys and girls receiving their professional wardrobes from robotic arms. Above the conveyor belt, smiling children are shown in various jobs wearing relevant career attire, with careful inclusion of children of many ethnicities as well as girls in science, medical, and construction jobs. While the text states that children will "find that one thing / that you love the most," its overall thrust when combined with the illustrations implies that God chooses a profession for each child at birth and that children should be working toward that profession from an early age. The concluding page urges children to stop reading the book and "go out and find my big plans for YOU." Readers with unemployed parents or parents toiling in miserable, unhappy jobs will be forgiven for wondering just where in God's plan their families fit. With this ahistorical interpretation, this book shows a disregard for both free will and the gradual maturation of talents and personalities. (Picture book/religion. 4-7)

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November 15, 2015
Preschool-G You are my hands and my feet there on Earth, narrator God says to an array of kids. I've given you a purposeit's been there since birth! Splashy, energetic illustrations introduce us to the YOU Factory, a colorful, Willy Wonkastyle building where God makes kids, imbuing them with all the skills they will need to be successful in life. Each has a specific purposea nurse, a zookeeper, an entomologistand are encouraged to find the one thing that inspires them. The factory metaphor may not hold up under intense scrutiny, but the find-your-passions message is an appealing one. The joyful, rhyming text and bright, whimsical illustrations make this well suited for read-alouds, and the religious elements are gently woven into the storythough God and the Bible both appear, neither is referred to by namemaking this somewhat more accessible to a wider denomination. Parents raising their children to have faith in both themselves and in a higher power will appreciate this offering.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)