I'LL HOLD YOUR HAND

A pledge: From birth to forever, a caregiver will be there for their child.

These three-line stanzas that alternately begin or end with the line “I’ll hold your hand” almost create a parenting vow, not unlike a marriage vow. “I’ll hold your hand” from the “night you arrive / when the whole world comes alive”; in good times, like vacations and snow days, and bad, “when goodbyes are a bummer” that create tantrums or “on your first night away / if you decide not to stay”; in sickness and in health. Each double-page spread features a different caregiver-and-child pair traveling together through the rites of passage, like learning to walk, camping out, the first day of school, and a broken heart. One spread even transposes the adult-child roles when it is the child who holds the hand of the snoring, bearded adult who conked out while reading to the child: “When you’re counting sheep, / and you’re falling asleep, / I’ll hold your hand.” Look carefully. The book in the illustration is this very book. “In the spring or the fall, / when you’re feeling small, / or for no reason at all, / I’ll hold your hand,” the book concludes, adding a third rhyme as a grace note. Although there is no reason to assume that all the families shown are headed by a single adult, all illustrations include only one caregiver and one child, all living in a racially diverse community. Illustrations also include a child in a wheelchair and a mother wearing a hijab. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A rhythmic reassurance of unconditional love worth reading time and again…and again.