DEAR BOY,

A follow-up to Paris Rosenthal’s advice-filled work written in collaboration with her late mother, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Dear Girl, (2017).

Young gentlemen need guidance too, so Paris Rosenthal partners with her father this time to dispense words of wisdom to boys. Some of the advice is quite pedestrian: “Dear Boy, Always trust magic”; “Dear Boy, If you need one more reminder to pursue your dreams, then here it is: Pursue your dreams.” Some of it echoes Dear Girl,: “Find kids who are like you. / Find kids who are unlike you.” And some directly speaks to the heart: “Honesty is one thing / that will never lead you down the wrong road.” Touching on masculinity, consent (“Yes means yes. / Anything else means no”), encouragement, and kindness, the text offers nothing that is misguided, but it does seem to be missing a spark of surprise. A tiny bit of the unusual. (But, one supposes, since Amy Krause Rosenthal’s death, so is the world.) Parallel to Dear Girl,’s protagonist, Hatam creates a paper-white boy with round-dotted eyes to explore the various scenarios. Friends of other, varying shades are in the periphery and background.

Raising and nurturing tiny humans, regardless of gender, is a difficult task—this stands as a reminder that love should be always present.