PPBF – Anything

I recently discovered today’s Perfect Picture Book and thought I’d share it as we head into Father’s Day weekend.

Title: Anything

Written By: Rebecca Stead

Illustrated By: Gracey Zhang

Publisher/Date: Chronicle Books/2025

Suitable for Ages: 4-8

Themes/Topics: moving, single-parent household, wishes, new home, possibilities

Opening:

The cake was chocolate.

Chocolate is my favorite cake.

But something was wrong.

Brief Synopsis: A young girl struggles to settle into a new apartment with her father.

Links to Resources:

·      Check out the Activity Kit;

·      Discover how to green your home by bringing cut branches or flowers in and/or growing plants indoors;

·      Try one or more of these kid-friendly breakfasts.

Why I Like this Book:

Regular readers know that I’m a serial mover who gravitates towards picture books that involve moving. So it’s no surprise that Anything would capture my attention.

In Anything, readers meet a young girl who is unhappy about the move and missing the old apartment. Readers who have moved with kids surely can relate!

How does this clever father deal with this unhappiness? As evident in the opening spread, he serves the child’s favorite cake with a birthday candle to celebrate the apartment’s birthday. He then encourages her to blow out the candle and make a wish for “anything,” or more accurately, three “anythings.”

What does she wish for? First, a rainbow in her bedroom. Then, pizza for dinner. Finally, the ability to avoid bathing in a new bathtub. All very kid-relatable wishes that a parent can grant, and that this Daddy does in a way that reflects the love he clearly holds for his child and that shows her the possibilities of the new apartment. He does much more, too, but I don’t want to spoil it by revealing everything!

Interestingly, all of the action occurs over the course of one day or so. Stead stays focused on the girl’s hesitation about the new apartment and Daddy’s responses, not dealing with other issues, like a new school, leaving friends or relatives behind, or learning to fit into a new neighborhood. Doing so enables Stead to offer a blueprint to adult readers on how to ease our own children’s anxiety about a move and shows young readers how a new home can offer new possibilities. Truly, it can be Anything!

Many of Zhang’s illustrations are partially or fully rendered in ballpoint pen and printed in black and white, as if drawn by a child. Pops of color appear throughout, including the rainbow mentioned above, and the pages become more color-filled and lighter as the story progresses.

For families undergoing change or dealing with unpleasant or anxious situations, Anything is a comforting read, sure to bring smiles to readers of all ages.

A Note about Craft:

Stead uses first-person point-of-view in Anything which helps draw readers closer to the action and the narrator’s emotional journey.

In the first spread, the reader learns only that chocolate cake is a favorite of the unnamed main character and that “something was wrong.” Although the main character sits upon a large box on the cover, a box that could be a delivered package or a moving box, the reader has no other clues about the subject of this picture book until we turn the page. Note, too, that Stead uses only “was” and “is” in the opening three sentences, and she changes from past, to present, and back to past tense. Not a typical opening scene, but it caused me to want to turn the page and learn more.

This Perfect Picture Book entry is being added to Susanna Hill’s Perfect Picture Book list. Check out the other great picture books featured there!