“This col­lec­tion offers a live­ly glimpse of the artis­tic starts of twen­ty-six writ­ers and illus­tra­tors for youth, with notable con­trib­u­tors such as Kwame Alexan­der, Dan San­tat, Phyl­lis Reynolds Nay­lor, and Lin­da Sue Park … The snap­shots of the artists as young men and women are engag­ing and irrev­er­ent … There are a lot of shoutouts to influ­en­tial teach­ers, a lot of ear­ly imi­ta­tion (right­ly rec­og­nized as a valid exer­cise), and a clear mes­sage through­out that this ear­ly work counts, whether you fin­ish it, whether it’s com­plete­ly orig­i­nal, whether it wins you the regard you hoped … this has cur­ric­u­lar use writ­ten all over it (there’s even tips for young writ­ers at the end) and the encour­age­ment is strong and valu­able. Plen­ty of young read­ers will sali­vate at the notion of liv­ing the dream described by Jar­rett J. Krosocz­ka: ‘What I do now for my job is exact­ly what I did for fun when I was a kid.’ ” (BCCB July/August 2017)