If Only…

A young child imagines what life would be like if only she were a butterfly. She’d be able to soar through the sky with her open wings, traveling anywhere she’d like. The butterfly finds preference with the six-legged creatures that look like sticks. If she were one of them, she could conceal her identity. The bee admires the independence of spiders. He wishes he could have such autonomy. The spider ponders how things would be if he were a ladybug instead. Others would see him as adorable. Each creature wishes he or she could be something else. The final one leads back to a child, demonstrating the never-ending cycle of non-complacency.

Children love to fantasize about alternative identities, of who or what they would be if only…often not realizing their own uniqueness in the world. They’ll find this story relatable and the illustrations alluring. They resemble kaleidoscope images, fragments all pieced together into intricate designs, illuminating the pages with color and originality.

If Only… is ideal for youth ages four to eight. The text is laced with repetition and could be enriched with variation. The remarkable illustrations aid in offsetting this shortcoming, and the brevity of the text makes it great material for a bedtime story.