Someday, a Book Review

Need a book for a mom of any age? How about the New York Times bestseller, Someday?

Alison Mcghee joins forces with illustrator, Peter Reynolds to create a mother/ child journey similar to Robert Munsch’s, Love You Forever. This book presents an insightful, gestalt view of parenting – reminding the reader that Some Day they will be looking at their children from a different vantage point.

Told from a mother’s perspective, a woman moves from holding her newborn baby to watching that baby grow up to becoming a mom herself.  At the end of the book, she is no longer the brunette young mother, cuddling a newborn. Rather, she’s a silver haired grandmother watching her own baby who’s matured into adulthood. How many of us can relate to the, sometimes overwhelming, emotion of our babies growing up? Many moms are in tears over the first day of kindergarten, high school, and college already, and this book definitely tugs at the maternal heartstrings. Along with capturing these tender moments, the book expresses a mom’s dreams for her child’s future:

“Someday you will swing high-so high, higher than you ever dared to swing.”

McGee doesn’t shy away from expressing the hurts a child will encounter either:

“Someday you will hear something so sad that you will fold up with sorrow.”

The Bottom Line:

McGhee has tenderly penned a chronicling of all of the various events that happens in one child’s life. As touching as the story is, it is simply not written for the kiddos.

To Think About:

People tend to have intense personal responses to this book — perhaps because the journeys with actual, real life moms are less than ideal, sometimes cut short, or simply too emotion-laden to think about without feeling. Some readers — in the throes of mothering their own kids right now — find this book a little too emotional.

Nevertheless, this author really captures what it feels like to be a parent. Interestingly… a little boy was asked what he thought of the book, as he slowly put it back on the table.

“It makes me sad,” he said, though he couldn’t explain why.

Quite possibly it captured something that kids experience all too often in their lives, sometimes a little prematurely… navigating the complex waters of adult emotions.

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