When I Grow Up I Want To Be Me

As in When There Are No Words and Magsamen's other books, When I Grow Up I Want to Be Me is long on both positive thinking and production values. The simple text is accompanied by all manner of gift-book bells and whistles: "When I grow up I'll follow my dreams" flies beside a shiny foil heart-shaped kite; "believe in magic" faces a pop-up top-hatted rabbit; "and reach for the stars" has a pull-out page of star stickers. The 22-page book also includes holographic fireflies, lift-up flaps, a handstanding girl on a spinner, and a top-and-bottom career chooser (you can mix and match the legs and torsos of a female astronaut, dancer, firefighter, artist, and doctor).

Depending on when they received their last irony inoculation, young girls may find their cynical worldview either cured or exacerbated by this book. But it's hard to fault a message that's so tirelessly cheerful, and many girls will love--and could stand to hear--Magsamen's star-spangled, heart-bedecked, pigtailed paean to self-love. (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes