Fishman, Seth. When I Wake Up. Jessixa Bagley, Illus. Picture Book. HarperCollins/Greenwillow, 12/2021. [32]pp. $17.99. 978-0-06-245580-2. ADDITIONAL GRADES. PRE-2.
A boy wakes up before his parents and starts his day imagining the various things he can do. He thinks of four scenarios, each illustrated with a different color including red, yellow, green, and purple. “I could make breakfast. Or build a city. Or take my scooter down the alley. Maybe I could borrow Mom’s little shovel for the garden.” Young children may have difficulty in following the various choices he could make; it may be easier to follow if you read one color’s choices through, and then another, rather than read the four options presented in each spread. The watercolor-and-pencil artwork depicts the main character as brown-skinned with dark curly hair, the father as white, and the mother as brown with long straight black hair. An unusual presentation that is ultimately only somewhat successful.
Penny Peck, San Jose State University, iSchool