What We'll Build: Plans For Our Future Together
You know you’re in safe hands when Oliver Jeffers tells a story. It’s not just because he’s an international award winner. It’s because Jeffers only tells a story if he has something important to say. And most often, just one point to make. Clearly. Simply. With very spare prose, delivered in his delightful trademark handwriting. And with deceptively uncomplicated images. But in What We’ll Build, the message runs deep.
Subtitled Plans for Our Together Future, this lovely book is as much for the father in the story as it is for the little girl, as the dad sets out his plans to shape their lives.
They lay out special building tools: hammers, nails, a plastic pig. They build a place to keep love warm for when they might need it later, castle walls to keep out scary things, round tables to make friends, places to dream and places to rest. Jeffers does not pretend that life doesn’t send challenges. Quite the opposite. We see stormy seas and angry faces. But nothing has to be so scary that it overwhelms you.
This is a gorgeous book to share with a small child, with easy rhymes to read and friendly characters to look for. It may prompt lots of chat with older children about forgiving friends, sharing adventures and how to turn bad experiences into positive ones. It empowers. It soothes.
It reassures. And it makes you smile. Probably another award winner. But don’t let that put you off. He just can’t help it.
