By Davina Bell
A bright, rhyming celebration that there are a hundred ways to be smart, and your child is already lots of them.
This one throws out the idea that 'smart' means good at tests. In warm, bouncing rhyme and bold, candy-bright pictures, it names all the other ways a child is clever: smart at drawing dinosaurs, smart at knowing when a friend is sad, smart at building tall towers, smart at trying again after a fall, smart at being kind, smart at just being exactly yourself. Each spread celebrates a different child and a different gift, so every reader finds a page that's about them. It's a joyful, affirming read that leaves a child standing a little taller.
It's the antidote to a narrow idea of cleverness, and that makes it a generous milestone gift: instead of 'you'll do great things someday,' it says 'you are already wonderful at so much, right now.' The wide sweep of talents means it flatters the artist, the kind one, the builder, and the tryer all in one book, so it fits whoever you're giving it to. The verse is lovely, not preachy, which is what lets the message land.