Title: Who Am I?
Author & Illustrator: Philip Bunting
Published: June 2020
Publisher: Scholastic
Readership: Children
Genre: Picturebook
Rating: ★★★★★
RRP: $17.99
I received a copy of Who Am I? from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Am I my body? Am I my mind? Who am I? Take a trip into deepest inner space to answer one of life’s biggest questions.
This is a book for anyone who has ever paused to wonder exactly who is wondering.
I’ve had the pleasure of reading a handful of Philip Bunting’s picturebooks, including How Did I Get Here? and Mopoke and what I love most about his books is how easily recognisable they are. They are always gorgeously illustrated in a deceptively simple style that makes them stand out.
Who Am I? is a picture book for children today, one that delves into the deep questions about what truly makes us us. Each page tackles a new question – am I my name? Am I my gender? Am I the colour of my skin? Am I my thoughts? – in a beautiful, gentle way that highlights the importance of these questions and these facets that make up each and every person, while also letting kids know that they are so much more than one little piece of themselves.
It’s a book that could be read from start to finish, but wearing my teacher hat, it’s also a book that you can read slowly, one single page at a time and use it as a really fantastic discussion starting point with kids of any age. Children have always had these questions, but the current generation is perhaps the most well-informed generation ever, and it’s more important than ever to have space for them to talk about these things with trusted adults and peers.
This is a picture book that I know I will revisit time and time again.
Noveltea Corner 