{"id":37956,"date":"2020-09-02T21:15:43","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T01:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37956"},"modified":"2020-09-02T21:15:43","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T01:15:43","slug":"review-of-i-can-be-anything-by-shinsuke-yoshitake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=37956","title":{"rendered":"Review of I Can Be Anything, by Shinsuke Yoshitake"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/i_can_be_anything_large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/i_can_be_anything_large.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-38312\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/i_can_be_anything_large.jpg 250w, https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/i_can_be_anything_large-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a><em>I Can Be Anything<\/em><\/p>\n<p>by Shinsuke Yoshitake<\/p>\n<p>Chronicle Books, 2020.  Originally published in Japan in 2016.  52 pages.<br \/>\nReview written July 8, 2020, from a library book<br \/>\nStarred Review<\/p>\n<p>When I saw this book, I expected a trite message trying to be inspirational about how a child can be anything they want to be.  That\u2019s not what this book is about.<\/p>\n<p>No, this is a story of an imaginative little girl putting off bedtime despite her very tired mother.<\/p>\n<p>As the book begins, we see the girl jumping up and down.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Mommy!  Mommy!  Mommy!<\/p>\n<p>I have a really good idea!<\/p>\n<p>Oh, really?  It\u2019s time to go to sleep.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll pretend to be something and you\u2019ll guess what it is!<\/p>\n<p>OK . . .  Now don\u2019t get angry if I make a mistake.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The little girl proceeds to pretend to be various things.  From a pot and a clothespin to a overcooked broccoli and various kinds of aliens.  The mother doesn\u2019t get any of them right.  And the choices are so random, and the drawings of the little girl so silly, they make me laugh.<\/p>\n<p>The mother doesn\u2019t get even one of her guesses right, and the girl does eventually get cross about it.<br \/>\nHow does it end?  The girl falls asleep while pretending to be something.  We never do find out what she was that time.<\/p>\n<p>This is a delightfully particular story completely the opposite of the generalized pablum I expected from that title.  It might just kick off a game with your own imaginative preschooler, and at least the mother in the book gives you cover if you\u2019re not very good at guessing.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/chroniclekids.com\">chroniclekids.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/1452180385\/sonderbooksco-20\" target=\"outside\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Find this review on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\">Sonderbooks<\/a> at: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/Picture_Books\/i_can_be_anything.html\">www.sonderbooks.com\/Picture_Books\/i_can_be_anything.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n<p>Source: This review is based on a book from Fairfax County Public Library.<\/p>\n<p>Disclaimer:  I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-count=\"none\" data-via=\"Sonderbooks\">Tweet<\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I Can Be Anything by Shinsuke Yoshitake Chronicle Books, 2020. Originally published in Japan in 2016. 52 pages. Review written July 8, 2020, from a library book Starred Review When I saw this book, I expected a trite message trying to be inspirational about how a child can be anything they want to be. That\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,15,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contemporary","category-picture-book-review","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37956"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38313,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37956\/revisions\/38313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}