BOOKS: Someday

Congratulations to Laura McCaulley for winning this week's book giveaway!  While this contest is now closed, please come back to SixSeeds for more giveaways for good, family, fun!

At SixSeeds, we believe in the power of a good story.  The books our children are hearing and reading will move, inspire, and sometimes even shape their lives... even young lives. This week, we take a popular kids' book and examine it. Hopefully, the next time you're browsing though a crowded bookstore, our reviews will help you sort through the thousands of titles…  and you can choose wisely!

Title: Someday

Author:  Alison McGhee

Illustrator: Peter Reynolds

Publisher: Simon & Schuster 

Cost: $14.99

Buy it: here.

Read on NPR: here.

Need a book for a mom of any age? How about the New York Times bestseller, Someday?   

Alison Mcghee joins forces with illustrator, Peter Reynolds  to create a mother/ child journey similar to Robert Munsch’s, Love You Forever. This book presents an insightful, gestalt view of parenting – reminding the reader that Some Day they will be looking at their children from a different vantage point.

Told from a mother’s perspective, a woman moves from holding her newborn baby to watching that baby grow up to becoming a mom herself.  At the end of the book, she is no longer the brunette young mother, cuddling a newborn. Rather, she’s a silver haired grandmother watching her own baby who’s matured into adulthood. How many of us can relate to the, sometimes overwhelming, emotion of our babies growing up? Many moms are in tears over the first day of kindergarten, high school, and college already, and this book definitely tugs at the maternal heartstrings. Along with capturing these tender moments, the book expresses a mom’s dreams for her child’s future:

“Someday you will swing high-so high, higher than you ever dared to swing.”

McGee doesn’t shy away from expressing the hurts a child will encounter either:

“Someday you will hear something so sad that you will fold up with sorrow.” 

The Bottom Line:

McGhee has tenderly penned a chronicling of all of the various events that happens in one child’s life. As touching as the story is, it is simply not written for the kiddos.

To Think About:

People tend to have intense personal responses to this book -- perhaps because the journeys with actual, real life moms are less than ideal, sometimes cut short, or simply too emotion-laden to think about without feeling. Some readers -- in the throes of mothering their own kids right now -- find this book a little too emotional. 

Nevertheless, this author really captures what it feels like to be a parent. Interestingly… a little boy was asked what he thought of the book, as he slowly put it back on the table.

“It makes me sad,” he said, though he couldn’t explain why.

Quite possibly it captured something that kids experience all too often in their lives, sometimes a little prematurely… navigating the complex waters of adult emotions.

For Mom and Dad to Consider:

How often do we get tripped up in our parenting because we’re thinking about the ending of the story? Someday ends with the child all grown up:

“Someday, a long time from now, your own hair will glow silver in the sun…. And when that day comes, Love, you will remember me.” 

The writer seems to be asking the question, “what will I mean to you when it is all said and done?” Of course, the question of how our children will view us later in life is a little daunting.  Will our kids love us? How will they remember us? On those days when we are a little too harsh, will those be their prevailing memories?

This book is a good time to stop and consider how those fears  might work themselves out in parenting. Should we be making parental choices in light of what they will mean for the future?  No one would argue whether thinking about the future is a good thing.  (After all, most parents want to raise kids that are productive members of society.)  But does our desire for our kids’ ongoing love and affection cause us to temporarily lose sight what is really good for them? Do we sometimes give in to our kid’s demands out of guilt or the fear that they won’t be there for us one day? Or, when we do hold our ground, do those gnawing thoughts of “what if”  haunt us or cause us to back away from what really is best?

Future-centered parenting is surely a good thing, but perhaps we should take an honest and periodic inventory, of whose future is really at the center. 

Listen the author on NPR here.

We are giving this book away this week! Please leave a comment for a chance to win. We always love to hear from you.

On one week from publication at noon (EST), we'll pick a name in a random drawing from all eligible entries received and send you an email notification.  When you receive your package in the mail, you'll find out which book you received!

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