The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be

by Joanna Gaines, Julianna Swaney (Illustrator)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Joanna Gaines knows a thing or two about creativity and turning a challenge into beautiful art. In her second picture book, an inspirational message of acceptance and celebrating uniqueness is paired with and elevated by Julianna Swaney's harmonious illustrations. A perpetually relevant and necessary concept, teamwork and celebrating our differences can lead to a truly beautiful outcome. "See how beautiful it can be when our differences share the same sky."

In the #1 New York Times bestseller, The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be, Joanna Gaines celebrates how creativity and acceptance can come together to make for a bright and beautiful adventure. The book, illustrated by Julianna Swaney, follows a group of children as they each build their very own hot-air balloons. As the kids work together, leaning into their own skills and processes, we discover that the same is true for life—it's more beautiful and vibrant when our differences are celebrated.

Together with Joanna, you and your kids will take a journey of growth and imagination as you learn in full color to:

• celebrate every child's one-of-a-kind strengths and differences;
• embrace teamwork;
• share our talents and abilities to make everything more beautiful; and
• end a helping hand and do our best to show kindness and take care of one another.

The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be is a vibrant picture book perfect for:

• children ages 4–8;
• grandparents, parents, teachers, and librarians;
• classroom story times and discussions about diversity and being a good human being;
• households that enjoy watching Chip and Joanna on Magnolia Network and HGTV's Fixer Upper; and
• holiday or Christmas gift-giving, birthdays, graduations, or other celebrations.

With plenty of pink, a bounty of blue, orange and green and yellow too, this vibrant hot-air balloon adventure celebrates every child and teaches kids that we are in this together. “You're one of a kind, and it's so clear to see: The world needs who you were made to be.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781400314232
Publisher:	Nelson, Tommy
Publication date:	11/10/2020
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	21,511
Product dimensions:	9.20(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Joanna Gaines is the co-founder of Magnolia, a New York Times bestselling author, editor-in-chief of Magnolia Journal, and creator and co-owner of Magnolia Network.

Born in Kansas and raised in the Lone Star State, Jo graduated from Baylor University with a degree in Communications. It was an internship in New York City that prompted her desire to discover how she could create beauty for people. In a big city unknown to her, Jo always felt most at home whenever she stepped inside the cozy and thoughtfully curated boutique shops, which inspired her to open a shop of her own in Waco, Texas.

Alongside her passion for design and food, nothing inspires Jo more than time spent at home with Chip and their five kids—whether they're messing with recipes in the kitchen or planting something new in the garden.

Julianna Swaney’s work is inspired by whimsical details of daily life and the fairy tales she loved reading as a child. She grew up homeschooled, which allowed free range for her imagination and interests in folklore, nature, and history. She graduated from the Maine College of Art and now lives in Portland, Oregon. Her illustrations are created using watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil. She is the illustrator of We Are the Gardeners, also by Joanna Gaines. www.juliannaswaney.com

Editorial Reviews

11/02/2020

A variously diverse group of earnest children designs individual hot-air balloons in this chirpy book by the creators of We Are the Gardeners. Gaines’s prose can be cumbersome, and inconsistencies in the verse’s rhyme and rhythm may make for rocky reading aloud—addressing the kids’ divergent creative processes, Gaines writes, “Some of us think through every possibility before we jump in./ And some of us know what we like before we even begin.” Though ambiguities and platitudes slow the story’s pace (“All of us can be kind, compassionate, and gracious./ All of us can be helpful, considerate, and courageous”), Swaney’s crisp pictures ground the narrative, pinpointing each child’s creative path, personality, and willingness to collaborate with others. A mix of spot art and busy panoramas, the cheerful illustrations feature a spectrum of bold and pastel hues—most strikingly evident in the eclectic balloons’ designs and patterns—and help solidify Gaines’s message about the rewards of appreciating others and creatively expressing one’s individuality. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

2021-01-19
A diverse cast of children first makes a fleet of hot air balloons and then takes to the sky in them.

Lifestyle maven Gaines uses this activity as a platform to celebrate diversity in learning and working styles. Some people like to work together; others prefer a solo process. Some take pains to plan extensively; others know exactly what they want and jump right in. Some apply science; others demonstrate artistic prowess. But “see how beautiful it can be when / our differences share the same sky?” Double-page spreads leading up to this moment of liftoff are laid out such that rhyming abcb quatrains typically contain one or two opposing concepts: “Some of us are teachers / and share what we know. / But all of us are learners. / Together is how we grow!” In the accompanying illustration, a bespectacled, Asian-presenting child at a blackboard lectures the other children on “balloon safety.” Gaines’ text has the ring of sincerity, but the sentiment is hardly an original one, and her verse frequently sacrifices scansion for rhyme. Sometimes it abandons both: “We may not look / or work or think the same, / but we all have an / important part to play.” Swaney’s delicate, pastel-hued illustrations do little to expand on the text, but they are pretty. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11.2-by-18.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 70.7% of actual size.)

As insubstantial as hot air. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews