While the book does not speak as much to youngchildren as it does to their caregivers, the pictures of a young black boy growingto adolescence and adulthood and the power of the mother’s prayer (“I will praythat you can always hold your head up, and that you grow old and raise sons andgrandsons who will be exalted for the suns that they are”) make it one that maywell transcend early readings to become a book to return to as a child becomes aman. Your life matters.” The didacticism is inherent to the form and theme ofthe text the interplay between the commercial design of the book and its politicalpoint is intriguingly subversive. Pinkney maintains a pastoralmood even as the mother realizes that her growing son will eventually outgrowher protection, and she asks God to be where she cannot: “I will pray that youare safe in neighborhoods beyond our own and that you feel confident whenyou face new challenges.” At this point, the book becomes an explicit call for theprotection and recognition of the worth of African American boys: “Black livesmatter. I havebig, bright dreams for you.” The book continues in a familiar pattern as thenarrator sees the little boy, Omari, through first steps and first day of kindergarten,“scrapes and scratches,” and bedtime stories.

On pastel backgrounds amidst the soft, swirling swoops of Pinkney’sgentle lines and colors, Weatherford shares a mother’s thoughts for a new babyboy: “I cradle you as you drift to sleep. It looks like a baby-shower book, and it is a baby-shower book-but with adifference.

In Your Hands by Brian Pinkney