Who Will You Be? by Andrea Pippins

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Who Will You Be? was written by Andrea Pippins. She is the creator of the coloring book I Love My Hair and the interactive book Becoming Me: A Work in Progress and the illustrator of Young, Gifted and Black, which received multiple starred reviews and which the New York Times called “hard to resist.” She is an influencer, an artist, a designer, and an educator with a penchant for cool and a personality as warm as her Brazilian roots. We could see her work in magazines and on television as well as on clothing and stationery. She also produces digital and screen-printed artwork in which she explores color, pattern, and texture while interpreting her personal experiences as an African American woman.[1]

Summary

My child, my little one,

Who will you be when you are grown?

There’s loving kindness in your eyes, like your daddy’s

and boldness in your heart, like your grandma’s.

Will you be like them?

This book tells about a mama who wonders who her child will grow up to be. Will her little one be curious like Grandpa and adventurous like Auntie Amina? Compassionate like Amy and joyful like cousin Curlena? Moving from family members to the wider community, she muses about which attributes her child will possess. A perfect gift for a baby shower, birthday, or graduation. Who Will You Be? features gorgeous artwork and gentle words that celebrate childhood and is an ode to the power of our village–and a reminder that every child is uniquely wonderful.[1]

Pros

Leslie as one of the readers spoke up about this book, she said that Pippins is generational and recruits from the child’s Black family/community as formative models in the child’s life. Audiences will read and affirm: Black people are marvelous sources of praiseworthy attributes; Black people value family and community and nurture one another. Pippins uses bold shapes and colors, not so much simple as straight-forward. Using line-work over shadow, and to add texture and visual interest. The result is vibrant, dynamic, and certain—for all it’s questioning. For all the wondering on the part of the mother, there is a surety and excitement in the present and future of this child. The book invites the audience to come up with their own lists. She just hope that everyone will follow Pippins’ lead and close their musings with this.[2]

Another reader named Lisa Boyle who gave five stars to this book talked that it is a very touching book to read to children. The book goes through all of the main character's family asking if the child would be like them when they grow up. At the end, the mom says that she hopes her daughter is all of those things and more. The book shows that it is important to be ourselves and teaches that family will love whoever we end up being.[2]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Andrea Pippins. penguinrandomhouse.com. Retrieved January 25th, 2021
  2. 2.0 2.1 Who Will You Be?. goodreads.com. Retrieved January 25th, 2021