You're Here for a Reason

by Nancy Tillman

Overview

Now available in board book, You're Here for a Reason, from national-bestselling and beloved author Nancy Tillman, takes a universal truth and makes it accessible for readers young and old.

Not only are we loved, but we also matter. In this tender and timeless read-along book, Tillman reminds us of this message in beautiful illustrations as children and animals interact with acts of kindness.

You're here for a reason. If you think you're not

I would just say that perhaps you forgot . . .

a piece of the world that is precious and dear would surely be missing if you weren't here.

If not for your smile and your laugh and your heart

this place we call home would be minus a part.

Thank goodness you're here!

Thank goodness times two!

I just can't imagine a world without you.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250106506
Publisher:	Feiwel & Friends
Publication date:	12/26/2017
Pages:	16
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 6.40(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Nancy Tillman is the author and illustrator of the New York Times best-selling picture book On the Night You Were Born and its companion journal, The Wonder of You: A Book for Celebrating Baby's First Year. Her other books include Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You, The Spirit of Christmas, and Tumford the Terrible. A former advertising executive, Tillman now writes and illustrates full-time. She lives in Tualatin, Oregon.

Editorial Reviews

"In these pages, readers get the sense of spying on a secret world—and [the] potent combination of unapologetic sentiment, fantasy, photorealism, and painterliness has an undeniable allure." —Publishers Weekly for Wherever You Are, My Love Will Find You

“A beautiful tribute to the uniqueness of every child.” —Kirkus Reviews on On the Night You Were Born

"This is one of those rare baby books that should make both skeptics and sentimentalists of all ages happy." —Publishers Weekly, for On the Night You Were Born

"A beautiful and timeless book." —School Library Journal for The Spirit of Christmas

From the Publisher

06/29/2015
Tillman (The Heaven of Animals) pairs her characteristically cheerful exhortations with layered mixed-media artwork in which startlingly real-looking children and animals play. The children dance with tigers, play soccer with kangaroos, and cuddle with pandas as Tillman assures readers that every life has a purpose: “Life works together, the good and the bad,/ the silly and awful, and happy and sad,/ to paint a big picture we can’t always see.../ a picture that needs you, most definitely.” In this interconnected world, she suggests, children’s good deeds have effects that they may never know about (“A kindness, for instance, may triple for days.../ or set things in motion in different ways”). She pictures the good deeds and the distance they travel as a boy, accompanied by a blue elephant, lets go of his colorful, long-tailed kite. A fox uses it as a sled for her kits, and the ribbons become a bridle for a moose and adorn a bird’s nest, which serves as a boat for a ferret. Polished artwork and character-building verse make this just as desirable as Tillman’s previous books. Ages 4–8. Agent: Cathy Hemming, Cathy Hemming Literary Agency (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

09/01/2015
PreS-Gr 2—Tillman's latest examines the struggle humans have with the idea of "purpose." She speaks as though addressing a child, repeating the refrain "you're here for a reason" and explaining that good things happen to others because of the child. Her answer to this life question may be unsatisfactory or too simplistic for some. Nevertheless, she fashions it into an encouraging sentiment that gives peace of mind. To evoke this sense, Tillman illustrates children mingling with animals in a vibrantly colored, dreamlike realm. As usual, her characteristic, almost photographic, digital and mixed-media paintings complement the soothing cadence of the text and beautiful rhyme. Goodwill spreads from page to page in the shape of a kite and a ball, showing how actions affect the world. Tillman frames her lovely poem with the idea of a puzzle, starting the verse that reads, "If not for your hands and your eyes and your feet,/the world, like a puzzle, would be incomplete" and ending with an image of a globe made up of puzzle pieces, depicting the paintings in the book.. It may not be obvious, but every person is a piece required to form the whole. VERDICT Fans of Tillman's previous titles will want to get this one as well; another ideal bedtime story for children and guardians to share.—Rachel Forbes, Oakville Public Library, Ontario, Canada

School Library Journal

2015-06-23
The sultana of high-fructose sentimentality reminds readers that they really are all that. Despite the title, we're actually here for a couple of reasons. In fulsome if vague language Tillman embeds one message, that acts of kindness "may triple for days… / or set things in motion in different ways," in a conceptually separate proposition that she summarizes thus: "perhaps you forgot— / a piece of the world that is precious and dear / would surely be missing if you weren't here." Her illustrations elaborate on both themes in equally abstract terms: a lad releases a red kite that ends up a sled for fox kits, while its ribbons add decorative touches to bird nests and a moose before finally being vigorously twirled by a girl and (startlingly) a pair of rearing tigers. Without transition the focus then shifts as the kite is abruptly replaced by a red ball. Both embodied metaphors, plus children and animals, gather at the end for a closing circle dance. The illustrator lavishes attention throughout on figures of children and wild animals, which are depicted with such microscopically precise realism that every fine hair and feather is visible, but she then floats them slightly above hazy, generic backdrops. The overall design likewise has a slapdash feel, as some spreads look relatively crowded with verses while others bear only a single line or phrase. Patchy work, both visually and teleologically. (Picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews