Book Review: The Wonderful Things You Will Be

Prepare to be wrapped in a nest of autumn colours and nostalgia.

Oh, the joys of a leap.

Or perhaps I should say, the sleepless, manic horror.

Little Miss and I started on The Wonderful Things You Will Be while going through leap three. To the mamas who track their child’s leaps, you’ll know that leap three is notorious for irritable, sooky, sleepless babies. The ultimate triple threat, as the name rightfully indicates.

This book became our go-to for surviving this fussy phase. It also, coincidentally, became my mantra. Oh the wonderful things you will be, one day, if we ever get through this. Oh, the wonderful things you will be, please hurry up. Oh, the wonderful things you will be. (Will you ever be?! *screaming face emoji*)

But enough about the horrors of baby regressions. I bet we’re all sick of hearing about, and living through, those.

Emily’s book is a wonderland of folk and whimsy. The softly-coloured illustrations, created by artist-author Emily Winfield Martin, hint at a bygone era. It’s a gentle palette for a gentle message: you are loved, and you will be wonderful.

This book wraps the reader in a nest of autumn colours and the soft-edges of nostalgia. Double-page illustrations are used to immersive effect. A child on a swing, one lone heart-shaped balloon trailing into the cloudless sky. Contrast this with a double-page spread of swaddled babies, of all different backgrounds and affinities, in a pattern that draws the eye across like the pattern in a crochet blanket.

Every page is a visual novelty.

Miss Grizzly — sorry, I mean, Little Miss — and I spent ages on these pages, pointing to the special details, every day noticing something new. Five points if you spot the miniature mouse band. Ten for the popcorn-munching robot. I might have more fun with this now, but in a few months when little cherub can connect her own narrative to visuals, I know she’ll love doing this, too.

“For all of your tininess couldn’t disguise
a heart so enormous…
and wild…
and wise.”

I can recite these lines without thinking about them. And you best believe I put a Beyonce growl into ‘wild’. That’s one of the best things about reading children’s books, isn’t it? The chance for storytelling to an audience that’s still captivated by even the simplest of sagas. We’re teaching association as much as language. Shrink forward when you speak of ‘tininess,’ because it’s a small word. Sit up straighter when you say ‘wise,’ because the wisest among us watch the world with level eyes. Children’s books let us animate language in a way that adult literature often doesn’t.

Martin’s book may have helped us survive a leap, but its promise of bringing comfort and togetherness well into the future is what I love about it most. You will be wonderful, no matter where this adventure takes and turns you. The promise of this book, my mantra, is why we keep reaching for it, again and again. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. I don’t know who Little Miss will grow up to be. But I do know, it’ll be wonderful.