By Joanna Gaines

illustrated by Julianna Swaney

Tommy Nelson books, 2020

A few years back, my dearest friend told me the story of a celebrity who went to a very faimous designer/stilist/life changing type of person. And she told the specialist that she wants a change and she have to reinvent herself. And the guy asked her how she wants to be, this new reinvented persona. And she said that she would like to be like X public person and a little bit like that person and so on… The specialist asksed her: How about being who you really are? Don’t you want to be that person?

And I often asks myself if I am who I really am or I just try to please others or to be who someone else needs me to be. Because we live among people and how they see us and their opinion about us matter, we like it or not.

I think that we prepair our kids to be not who they really are and we keep on doing that since they are very little. We compare them with other kids; our parents compare them with us at their age; we ask them what they want to be when they grow up and we also offer tthem he “right” answers. The answers most wanted and respected in the society we live. And by doing so, we limit their options with our subjectivity and our very own limitations. So maybe the best thing we can do is let them be who they natural feel to be. And trust them that they know best what they want to be or how they want to live.

The book is written in short verses that rhyme and are easy to remeber and repeat. It is recommended for ages 4-8, but depending on the child history of reading, i think it’s also appropiate for smaller children.

Joanna Gaines is a famous designer who, together with her husband and their 5 kids, had a famous TV show that she end it due to the excesive exposure of the family.

The message she wants to send to all the children of the world is that it is ok to be different, to want different things and to get where we want to go on different paths. Because it is human nature to be diverse, to have unique qualities and abilities.

Maybe some kids like to work in team and maybe some are more productive working alone. Maybe some are very serious when completing a task and other like to tell a joke or sing or make a special sound ( my daughter does that) when they are focusing on a specific task.

And as long as we prepare ourselves the best we can, the journey we take is the same for each and everyone of us. And the sky, as we begin the journey, it gets filled with all our beautiful differences! And it is a picture worth making and seing, because we have just one live and we must live it the best we can. As who we were meant to be.