What If One Day… opens in a new tab
By Bruce Handy
Illustrated by Ashleigh Corrin
Enchanted Lion Books, 2023.
The book’s pattern is to raise a question, for example, “What if one day, all the birds flew away? The segment continues “Mornings would be quieter. Skies would be plainer. Worms could relax. BUT there are birds!”
This clever book engages us through images and leads readers into a conversation with open-ended questions.
By asking how our world would change if it lacked birds, water, or people, and how we would feel about that, these playful topics from Bruce Handy, accompanied by truly joyful art from Ashleigh Corrin, invites readers to celebrate the wonder of existence, and all that makes our world what it is.
What if the world as it is—with light and water, salt, earth, and animals, plants and insects, air and stars and of course, French fries’—is sufficient, and it is only us who have not known how to cherish it? This book reminds us that all we need is here, if only we focus and take care of what we have in our lives.
What if One Day…
if there were no birds
if all the water disappeared
if every single plant stopped growing
if the sun never set and there was no more night
if all the colors faded away
if every bug crawled and wiggled and flitted away
if there were no more people
if something was missing? Not because it flew away or stopped growing or disappeared…but because it hadn’t been dreamt of yet?…What would you dream of?
This is a humorous 80-page picture book, centering on using your imagination and exploring nature.
Bruce Handy is an author, journalist, essayist, critic, humorist, and editor.
Ashleigh Corrin is a graphic designer and illustrator.
Submitted by Karen Kosko
