I PROMISE YOU

A loving narrator utters a string of promises to a bevy of tots.

The guarantees are largely conceptual and seemingly chosen for sentiment and rhythmic effect rather than for their toddler audience. “I promise you AGAIN and ONE LAST TIME,” reads the opening text as a paper-white child plays on a swing against a backdrop of falling leaves (all of them green, oddly). The following spread concludes the uneven rhyme as a Black-presenting child gazes at a neat tower of apples, from which a worm looks back: “I promise you some YUM, THAT’S GOOD! and YUCK! NEVER MIND!” On a spread showing another Black-presenting child teetering on top of an architecturally impossible stacking-toy sculpture, a burst of assurances cover good habits and routine social interactions: “I promise you CLEAN YOUR ROOM, BLOW YOUR NOSE, ZIP UP YOUR COAT—YES, ALL THE WAY, / some HELLO, GOODBYE, and SEE YOU ANOTHER DAY….” Here the slip in scansion in this uncredited translation from the French is noticeable. Roussey’s illustrations are mostly wispily allusive; her trademark selectively-colored children all sport enormous, round heads, ears that stick out, and flat noses. Unfortunately, this stylized aesthetic too easily resembles racist simianization when applied to a Black-presenting child in one image. Die-cut shapes offering peekaboo glimpses of succeeding pages are mostly merely decorative.

Not very promising at all.