What If One Day...

By Bruce Handy, Ashleigh Corrin (Illustrator)

What if the world lost its wonders? Discover the beauty in what remains.

3.9/5 Goodreads · 129 ratings

80 pages

$19.95Save 5%

In stock. Also at Amazon or Bookshop.

Bookroo's summary

Imagine a world without birds, bugs, or even day and night. This playful journey invites readers to ponder life's wonders and what we might miss if they vanished. Through vibrant illustrations, explore the beauty of our world and the importance of cherishing it. What if everything we need is already here, waiting to be appreciated? Dive into a thought-provoking adventure that challenges us to see the extraordinary in the everyday and question how we value the world around us. Celebrate existence and the simple joys that make life complete.

From the publisher

This thought-provoking, playful picture book from NYT Best Children’s Book author Bruce Handy and Ezra Jack Keats Award winning illustrator Ashleigh Corrin plays with the idea of how life would be if certain of the things we love most were no longer here. A New York Times Best Children’s Book of 2023! A Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Book of 2024! An Academy of American Poets’ Featured Fall Book for Young Readers! A Bookstagang Best of 2023 Winner: Best Illustration!What if one day, all the birds flew away? Mornings would be quieter. Skies would be plainer. Worms could relax. What if there were no more bugs? What if there ceased to be day and night? By asking how our world would change if it lacked birds, water, or people, and how we would feel about that, this playful text from Bruce Handy (The Happiness of a Dog with a Ball in Its Mouth), accompanied by joyful art from Ashleigh Corrin (Layla’s Happiness), invites readers to celebrate the beauty and wonder of existence, and all that makes our world what it is. So often, our gaze is on the future, on that better world to come, but what if the world as it is–with light and water, salt, earth, and animals, plants and insects, air and stars and French fries–is sufficient, and it is only us who have not known how to cherish it, or to love it all well enough? This book reminds us that all we need is here, if only we attend!

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