When I Grow Up . . .

by Paula Vasquez

Overview

What is your family like?

All of the children in Miss Ester’s class know what they want to be like when they grow up: their families! And each family is special and unique. Readers will be surprised and delighted to find that Johnny the duckling’s mom and dad have curly tails, stubby noses, and hooves.

Johnny and his classmates make it easy for parents to show their little ones that there are many types of families, and they’re all made of love. Paula Vásquez’s fun illustrations and sweet writing style make this unique family story a must-have.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423646891
Publisher:	Smith, Gibbs Publisher
Publication date:	03/21/2017
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	3 - 8 Years

About the Author

Paula Vásquez, an avowed artist from childhood, studied graphic design at the Universidad Católica de Chile, and honed her illustration skills with a post-graduate diploma from Finis Terrae University. She currently lives in Santiago de Chile writing and illustrating children’s picture books.

Editorial Reviews

01/01/2017
PreS-Gr 1—When Teacher Ester asks the students, "Who do you want to be like when you grow up?," each youngster responds by describing a parent's desirable physical trait. But Johnny isn't like his parents in physical form—he's a duck, and his parents are pigs. He's embarrassed to admit that his tail isn't like Mom's and his legs aren't like Dad's, but he has no trouble talking about the ways he wants to be like them. The students' responses (antlers like Dad's, a neck like Mom's) don't quite correspond grammatically to the opening question, but this isn't likely to deter children's enthusiasm for the story. In the end, readers see that some of the students also live in nontraditional family arrangements. Lively illustrations in mixed media, including cut-paper images, portray the joys children feel when they think of their families. The endpapers include images of each student, along with the numbers one through seven repeated in diagonal rows, offering an additional learning activity. VERDICT This title has a quirky, worldly feel to it and is a worthy selection for those seeking picture books about inclusivity.—Gaye Hinchliff, King County Library System, WA

School Library Journal

2016-12-21
A duckling wants to be just like his porcine parents when he grows up.When their anthropomorphic alligator teacher asks them to share "Who do you want to be like when you grow up?" animal children voice admiration for same-species parents. Martin the fawn wants to have antlers so he "can be as handsome as Dad"; little zebra Ema wants her legs to be like her father's so she "can run around the meadow"; and an elephant calf wants a trunk like his grandpa's to help him cool down. Johnny the duckling looks worried when the teacher prompts him to respond, and a sequence of double-page spreads reveals the reason for his hesitation: his parents are not ducks but pigs, and he doesn't have their physical attributes. But he comes up with several ways that he is like his parents, providing credence to the nurture side of the nurture/nature equation in child-rearing. Many will regard this book as a nod to inclusivity of human adoptive families and perhaps particularly transracial ones—but it's an uneasy metaphor that uses different species to represent different races, and it's not as though there's a surfeit of books about human transracial adoption. Closing illustrations of the children's family portraits reveal a two-daddy lion family and the elephant calf with his grandparents instead of parents. Love makes a family, but this may not be the best book to demonstrate this truism. (Picture book. 3-7)

Kirkus Reviews

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