Having young children, I have to read a lot of young children's books. If I'm fortunate, my son chooses something tolerable; if I'm lucky, my son chooses
Yes Day. The story of a young boy who, once a year, receives affirmation of his every desire could have easily turned into a cloying, obnoxious trek through the whiny, entitled dreams of a bratty American child. Instead, it follows the imaginative, whimsical decisions of not just one boy but his entire family. By the end of the book any reader, young or old, has been swept up in the wonderment that "anything could happen", experiencing the (naive?) belief that a break from the norm provides a special kind of escape to a land where possibilities are endless, even if only temporarily so. Structurally, the book does a good job of showing, not telling, the results of this anything goes day with enough visual humor to garner a chuckle out of people weary of reading crap like
SpongeBob Square Pants TV show adaptations or
Fifty Shades of Grey. I have a bad habit of seeing most children's entertainment as a reminder of just how stupid I must have been as a child;
Yes Day just reminds me how special that childhood was. One of the
Best Things Ever to cap off the bedtime routine with my son.
