Be You!

Bestselling author-illustrator Peter H. Reynolds is back with another inspirational picture book, this one called Be You! Although the traditional intended audience for picture books is pre-literate children, this book will likely find its niche more comfortably as a commemorative gift for older children, such as those in middle school and secondary school (ages ten through seventeen).

Be You! lacks a narrative; instead it offers advice for becoming not only “the real you” but also “an amazing human being”. With the text composed primarily of imperative sentences, this advice may sometimes seem overwhelming, such as when readers are commanded to “Be persistent. Keep going, never stop. Keep going, never stop. Keep going, never stop.” At other times, the advice can seem contradictory, such as when readers are told, “Be different. Be silly. Be quirky. Be odd. Be unique. Be weird,”—but also, “Be just the way you are.” This may have readers who don’t consider themselves particularly quirky or who simply want to blend in wondering where that leaves them. Towards the end of the book, readers are promised that, “no matter what, you will always be loved,” and then assured, “You are ready. So . . . go ahead . . . Be YOU.” Such encouragement may be comforting to some while intimidating to others—particularly if they’re already wondering about whether they’re persistent and different enough! After all, as inspiring as these messages are on many levels, being told to embody so many behaviors at once—from “adventurous” to “understanding” to “patient”—all in pursuit of becoming “an amazing human being”— does create a lot of pressure.

Like most picture books, Be You! features colourful illustrations that portray young children—these ones in Reynolds’s signature cartoon style that many adults find so heartwarming. However, these representations of young children are somewhat at odds with the more developmentally mature advice on offer, particularly in the context that readers are about to “voyage out into the world”.

As such, Be You! will make an uplifting (if daunting) gift book for young people graduating from elementary, middle, or secondary school, thus expanding the repertoire of such celebratory books beyond Dr. Seuss’s classic Oh, the Places You’ll Go!.