You Are Here

PreS-Gr 2–”BEGIN!” this friendly book admonishes readers, suggesting that there is no right or wrong way. “Everyone begins differently. So whether you walk, skip, dance, or sit...be your own kind of brave.” Manbeck has a child’s generous view of the world, and works in a sunny palette of golds, oranges, yellows, and grassy greens in support of that vision. In this realm, one needn’t even be human; a red fox skateboards alongside a brown child using a wheelchair, both surrounded by scampering, striding, flying, rolling, others. The exultations continue: “Explore” followed by “Take Your Time” and even “Fall Down!” because it is impossible to screw up the journey from here to there. The writing is tight, the rush of words paced perfectly with the activities of the children and other beings who have more abilities and ethnicities than there are flowers in the field.