Shelf Awareness--I Am Thinking My Life

PB Review: I Am Thinking My Life

I Am Thinking My Life by Allysun Atwater, illus. by Stevie Lewis (Bala Kids, 32p., ages 3-7, 9781611808971)

I Am Thinking My Life is an empowering picture book that demonstrates the strength that comes with believing in oneself and shows how a mindful vision of one's world may help shape it for the better.

An opening spread introduces readers to a young Black child who is thinking deeply about their life and their vision of the world. "I am creating a universe," they say. "I breathe meaning into my life through my thoughts and then my actions. I am the architect of my dreams." The child is radiant, loving, creative. They are seeing and becoming. Even when they "think storms," and for a time they are "storms... and thunderclouds... and tears," they may remember to "search inside" until they find sunshine and the clouds roll away.

Allysun Atwater's debut includes deceptively simple text designed to help readers (and herself, as she points out in an author's note) "maintain a positive mindset." She offers the power to "dream, envision, and nurse [one's] ideas and goals into reality," all presented in the very sympathetic form of a child who confidently shapes their own world. Stevie Lewis (Lost in the Library illustrator) uses colorful illustrations nimbly to portray this child who is by turns gleeful, thoughtful, determined, sad and triumphant, and she easily blends their flights of imagination with their reality. I Am Thinking My Life is a solid affirmation of the steps that any reader might take positively to affect their own world view. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger and children's book author.

Discover: A child becomes empowered by mindfully incorporating positive thinking into their young life.