The Power of Yet: A Picture Book

by Maryann Cocca-Leffler

Overview

Award-winning author-illustrator Maryann Cocca-Leffler presents an inspiring picture book about overcoming challenges and frustrations with the Power of Yet.

“I can’t do it!”
“Can’t do it YET.”

This charming picture book tells the story of one small piglet who uses the Power of Yet to conquer frustration. While it may not be possible to perfectly flip pancakes or play the violin yet, with practice and patience and courage and grit, anything is possible!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419740039
Publisher:	Abrams Appleseed
Publication date:	01/12/2021
Pages:	24
Sales rank:	331,783
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Maryann Cocca-Leffler is the award-winning author and illustrator of more than 60 books for children, including Growing Season, Same Way Ben, and The Belonging Tree. Her book Janine was inspired by her daughter, and together they have developed a corresponding Website, janinesparty.com, with a mission to help change public perception of children with disabilities. When not working in her Portland, Maine, studio, Maryann is visiting schools and libraries to share her books.

Editorial Reviews

11/23/2020

Recommending persistence and self-assurance, this picture book features a young piglet who grows increasingly impatient at being told “Not yet.” “Not yet” ready to ride a bicycle without training wheels, successfully flip pancakes, join the baseball team (“6 and up,” a sign reads), play violin, or ride the big kid rides, the piglet finally erupts in frustration over an uncompleted 1,000-piece puzzle: “How do I get to YET?” A guardian responds, “It takes growing and doing,/ patience and time,” describing the amount of waiting, failing, collaboration, patience, and “GRIT” involved in achieving one’s goals. Spare, gently rhyming text shows Cocca-Leffler’s proficiency in the area of uplifting children, while heartwarming pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations empathically show the piglet’s struggles, likely to the amusement of young readers. An encouraging reminder for those learning how to focus themselves on the present instead of agonizing over the future. Ages 3–5. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

2020-11-18
Persistence pays off for a piglet.

Frustrations, depicted in a series of vignettes, overwhelm a young pig when success seems constantly out of reach, or “not yet.” Not yet ready to bike without training wheels, not yet tall enough for the roller coaster, not yet old enough for the baseball team, not yet in tune on the violin. Even the pancakes aren’t ready to flip. “YET, YET, YET!” wails the piglet. “How do I get to YET?” the piglet asks a grown-up pig in a purple tunic. The instructive response, that things improve, often with practice, is delivered in a rhymed text that goes down easy: “The path to YET / is not a straight line. / It takes growing and doing, / patience and time.” A few more vignettes demonstrate that there will be challenges along the way: Arithmetic problems go awry, spelling means mistakes, knitting is tricky, and watercolor painting drips. “You’ll get sad and angry, / but don’t you quit— / you have power and courage, / and that’s called GRIT.” Cocca-Leffler’s art is lighthearted, and the activities of the child pig will be familiar to most. The value of a growth mindset—working toward small goals, waiting for the right time, and learning patience and resilience—is indisputable. Though the coaching advice here feels slightly formulaic and the rhymed delivery echoes similarly inspirational offerings, the piglet is winsomely appealing and the accomplishments within reach of the audience. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 37.3% of actual size.)

Encouraging. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews