What Will I Grow Up to Be?

[KWR229]

What Will I Grow Up to Be?

By Kim Webb Reid



[Art suggestion: A pregnant mother and her young child, and then their new puppy, grow along with the plants and animals in their neighborhood. As the seasons advance from early spring to fall, the mother’s pregnancy advances until the baby arrives and the young child becomes an older sibling.]



Seed, then seedling. Sapling. Tree. [Trees are mostly bare in early spring.]

What will I grow up to be?



Hiding bulb, then spying sprout.

Blooming bud when sun comes out.



Cheeping hatchling. Bird who sings.

Downy head, then gliding wings.



Seed, then seedling. Sapling. Tree. [Trees are blossoming.]

What will I grow up to be?



Kittens. Cats. New puppies. Dogs. [Family adopts a puppy.]

Eggs in ponds, then tadpoles. Frogs. [Puppy is curious about the pond.]



Creepy Crawler. Green cocoon.

Fanning wings beneath the moon. [Newly hatched butterfly at dusk]



Seed, then seedling. Sapling. Tree. [Trees have green leaves and beginnings of fruit.]

What will I grow up to be?



Leafy branches. Rosy peach. [Fruit has matured.]

Tippy toes until I reach.



Crawling vine, then purple grape.

Mama’s belly changing shape.



Seed, then seedling. Sapling. Tree. [Leaves are changing color.]

What will I grow up to be?



Dreamer. Worker.

Seeker. Finder. [Perhaps child is “working” by harvesting food from garden or “finding” by herding the family’s runaway puppy home.]



Taller. Wiser.

Older. Kinder. [New baby has arrived, and narrator is being a kind older sibling.]



Every day I’ll look and see:

I am growing into . . .



Me!

[angelaricks]

Hi Kim, I love the premise of this book. I also absolutely love the simplicity and beauty of the rhyming meter. A few scattered comments:

The beginning and the ending are just beautiful. I love the idea of the tree changing with the mother.

I felt like there are two separate themes going on here -- the mother growing a baby (and I thought near the beginning perhaps the "who will I grow up to be" was referencing the baby, rather than a sibling) and the growth of a child into becoming an older sibling. You may want to consider leaning into one of them more, either focusing on the growth of the baby (perhaps without the older sibling?) OR leaning more into the older sibling. By "lean into it", I think adding a few more phrases here and there that directly relate to the theme would help strengthen the growth.

For example, I loved the line "Crawling vine, then purple grape. Mama's belly changing shape." When I read this, I thought, "Oh, I'd love to hear another line about this change earlier."

If you did choose to remove the sibling theme, I can picture the Mama's belly growing, her having a baby, and then getting bigger..."Taller. Wiser. Older. Kinder." So the story ends with the child being the age of the child that is being read to.

If you choose to lean more into the sibling theme, I would love a few more lines that might mirror the anticipation of a new baby from the child's perspective, and then the delight (or new experience) of having a new sibling.

The theme of the tree growing throughout is a really lovely device that strengthens the idea of change.

Small note: I didn't really love the "spying sprout" line. "Spying" didn't seem to quite match the tone of the rest of the story.

Overall, it's just lovely and I would love to read this to my children!

[KWR229]

Thanks, Angela! This is a total rework in response to the agent's feedback at WIFYR, who said the draft I sent our class had no arc. So this is my first attempt at it not just being a concept book with random pictures, and I can see that there are kind of two things going on here. Thanks for your thoughtful response to help me revise further.