When I grow up by Tim Minchin

Ill. by Steve Antony. Scholastic, 2017. ISBN 9781742764955
(Age: 4+) Recommended. Growing up. Adulthood. A child's perspective of being an adult is shown with fun and music in this offering from Tim Minchin. The children see adulthood through their eyes, the things an adult does are the things they would like to do, but are restricted from doing by the adults. So their adulthood means that they can watch all the cartoons they want, or eat all the sweets and restricted food that they want, go to bed late every night and wake up when they want to. When they grow up they will be strong enough to lift all the heavy things adults carry around, and brave enough to scare away the monsters beneath the bed.
Minchin's representation of childhood exposes all those things that adults tell them not to do, or eat, while his adulthood reflects some of the things that children see as only being able to be achieved when that age is reached. He cleverly exposes some of the needs of children and toils of being an adult through his humorous lines, and readers will have a great time listing all the other things they will be able to do as an adult that they cannot do now.
Added to the fun are laugh out loud illustrations, designed to register with the younger readers, and proving a smart adjunct to the words.
A good read aloud, the words and illustrations demand children be involved, either predicting the words that follow each line or humming along or sweeping their eyes over the illustrations, involvement will be effortless. In the front of the book is a card that enables the readers to download Tim Minchin performing his story.
Fran Knight