Maybe You Might
by Imogen Foxell ; illus. by Anna Cunha
Preschool, Primary     Lantana    32 pp.     g
10/22     978-1-913747-86-2     $17.99

This lyrical, poetic picture book addresses a perennial question: ­Why try? The story begins on the front endpapers where the child narrator stands alone amid a barren expanse of dirt. “There was nothing green or ­growing / in the country of my birth,” the text later says. So, the narrator plants one seed and tends it. People say this won’t make a difference, but the child perseveres, thinking, “Maybe it might.” Cunha’s mixed-media illustrations are formed with strong textured brushes of color—light on detail but heavy on atmosphere. Parched-earth shades give way to lush blues and greens as that first seed grows into a tree, which produces fruit and more seeds, which, in turn, produce more plant life throughout the span of the narrator’s lifetime. This book is a testament to the power of ­tenacious audacity while also demonstrating the life cycle of people, plants, and the planet itself. Foxell’s text speaks of care and hope while Cunha shows how the water cycle restarts itself as the ­narrator grows from child to adult to parent to elder. A beautiful volume that will sit as comfortably alongside classroom ­curricula as it will on story shelves.

From the September/October 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.