The Awesome Book is Awesome.

I may just be a little bit in love with Dallas Clayton right now. Can I say that? Because even though I had no idea who he was before I received this book, I really kind of loved this book. Hard. And not only did I love this book, but my daughters did as well. If you can please all three of us picky-cranky-curmudgeonly reviewers, well, then you’ve got yourself a winner.

I guess I am the ideal target for books like this. Not only do I love children’s books, I love children’s books that encourage our children to dream, reach, achieve and to let them think all of the magical things in the world could be so.

There are places in the world where people do not dream of rocket-powered unicorns…

And so begins “An Awesome Book!” with it’s vivid and engaging illustrations and the far-reaching, creative and outrageously and gloriously imaginative prose.

One afternoon, I arrived home and this book was there. The Princess and I opened the front cover and immediately began reading it aloud and in unison as our eyes slowly took in the bursts of color on each page and we recited the lines, these fantastical lines (“of magic watermelon boats and musical babboons…”). We’d smile at these thoughts, these silly thoughts.

You see, the thing is, I’m a creative person. Being creative is both a wonderful and terrifying thing – and when I read these words, these words about dreaming big and how your dreams can change the way things are and the way that things are not – on a parental level and on just a “human being in the world” level, I think it hits in the same place. I want my kids to be dreamers, to reach beyond what they can see and to strive for that which may seem impossible.

But then.

I should too.

This is why children’s literature never stops being exciting for me – because the same basic lessons I hope my children absorb from it, those lessons are sinking in my own noggin as well.

This morning, I pulled the book out and set it on the counter so I would remember to write this review today. Pumpkin woke up and with an arm full of stuffed animals, silently turned through the pages reading the words to herself. I watched her – how her lips curled up in a smile at the delightful illustrations and silly copy – I watched my girl reading (silently! Finally, silent reading!) and enjoying herself, unprompted. Reading as in, “Here is a book that looks good to me, I think I’ll open it up to see what’s inside.”

I. Love. That.

On the back of this book, Dallas Clayton listed the appropriate reader age as 0-1000. I’m not gonna disagree. This may be a children’s book but it’s found a new home on my bookshelf.

So, if you like books that make you happy, that are encouraging and that work whether your a toddler in diapers or a great-grandparent in diapers… you should definitely check this one out.

I wasn’t paid to write this review but did receive  a copy of this book in the mail, outta-the-blue, free. I loved it and felt compelled to share.