What we'll build Plans for our together future

Oliver Jeffers

Book - 2020

A father and his young daughter gather their tools and begin building a future where love can be set aside until it is needed, enemies become friends, and exploration is key.

Saved in:

Children's Room Show me where

jE/Jeffers
0 / 2 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
Children's Room jE/Jeffers Due Apr 13, 2024
Children's Room jE/Jeffers Due Apr 8, 2024
Subjects
Genres
Stories in rhyme
Picture books
Published
New York : Philomel Books 2020.
Language
English
Main Author
Oliver Jeffers (author)
Item Description
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children's Books in 2020.
Physical Description
1 volume (unpaged) : color illustrations ; 29 cm
Audience
Ages 4-8.
Grades K-1.
ISBN
9780593206751
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Spare rhyming text inspires this instruction manual as dad and daughter gather tools big and small and ask: "What shall we build, you and I?" The answers include a door where there was none, some love, a gate to let others in, a road up to the moon, and a safe place to snuggle. The dad has a green watch cap and striped shirt, his daughter has a mop of straw hair; they are fleshed-out stick figures with expressive, energetic personalities, intent on exploring all the possibilities for joy and inclusion that the world offers. Fun pages in pencil, ink, and saturated watercolor remind us of similar joys in Jeffers' quirky cartoon style--no detail is too small to inspire investigation (astronaut-helmeted birds, a witch on a broomstick in space, offbeat aliens sipping tea, or a clockface with a sushi numeral). Children will love his playbook for building a future of love and imagination, and they will delight in the special relationship the father and daughter share.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this standalone companion to Here We Are! that is dedicated to his daughter, Jeffers imagines a stream of fanciful projects that a father, sporting a wool hat, and his sailor dress--clad daughter might do together. Zooming in on her small hands, his large ones, and the tools they have both assembled, it's clear that the narrator views the girl as a capable partner, despite her age--"Let's build a door/ where there was none,// We'll build a house/ to be our home." He promises to keep her safe in "a place to stay when all is lost,/ to keep the things we love the most," and he's also up for daffy engineering projects: towers, tunnels, a road to the moon, all stroked in generous swaths of warm color and Jeffers's signature childlike scribbles. In the story's most developed episode, the two realize that building walls keeps potential friends out, and they open their fortress gates to admit a Viking, a pirate, a witch, and a lavender-colored surgeon. Jeffers's benediction portrays a parent who surrounds his child with love and steadies her as she learns how to bring her dreams to fruition. Ages 4--8. Agent: Paul Moreton, Bell Lomax Moreton. (Oct.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

An adult and child gather tools and prepare for a future together. Some things they build are rife with symbolism, such as a shelter to store what they value (including some "love" they set aside) and futures they build for each other, depicted as a series of items in blue and pink waves that spring from a wristwatch. Others are more concrete, like the fortress they build to repel "enemies," whom they later invite in for tea and apologies. Some of what they build is fantastical (a road to the moon). The book is dedicated to the author's daughter and is considered a companion piece to Here We Are, published in 2017 and dedicated to his son, though the pair here could still be interpreted as having a different type of caretaker-child relationship. Camaraderie between the two is the thematic focus in this affectionate narrative. Portions of the text's meaning are somewhat vague (the two lie next to a fire that will "keep us warm like when we're born"), and the rhyming text, with moments of inconsistent meter, occasionally feels forced. Jeffers fills the pages with an odd, giggle-inducing assortment of creatures; the duo's former foes include a one-eyed pirate, a witch, a Viking, and (in a very poorly timed choice) a white-coated doctor with a surgical mask, and there are a friendly octopus and birds in space helmets. Adult and child both present White. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-19-inch double-page spreads viewed at actual size.) Though straining in spots, it has the offbeat, sweet style Jeffers' fans know and love. (Picture book. 4-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.