It’s Your World Now!
It’s Your World Now! is the début picturebook from Barry Falls, a well-known Belfast illustrator. Written entirely in rhyming text, this picturebook is a gorgeous celebration of individual potential and possibilities.
Starting with the image of a small child running towards the open arms of a parent figure, the book opens with the promise of a journey of discovery. That journey is full of rich and colourful images of the wonderful things that exist in the world. Falls reintroduces the adult reader to childhood wonder in this book but also effectively illustrates how unsure a parent figure can be when deciding how to guide a child. Are we are the best ones to decide what is right for our children? Falls uses white space here to withdraw from the journey and express doubt, but ultimately all doubt fades as the main message of unconditional love is conveyed.
Similar to Oh The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss, the potential of the child as an individual is explored. In this book any future is possible as the reader is encouraged to dream big. This is a lovely picturebook for a small child to read alone or to read with an adult; there are many intertextual references to find and refer to later. Every page has something for a child to enjoy; even the title page is playful with a message from a ladybird challenging the small reader to seek out its image in each picture. A lovely book on many levels.
