Tomorrow is a Brand-New Day by Davina Bell, with illustrations by Allison Colpoys
This book was part of the Notable list for the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year Awards – Early Childhood.
Good or bad, the things you do are all a part of being you, of learning how to take your boat on stormy seas and stay afloat.
Oh, my heart.
I feel like there is only one thing I really need to say about this book. Never before has a picture book so beautifully and accurately articulated the feeling of having done something wrong to a friend, the anxiety that comes with thinking you can’t fix it, and the sadness that your emotions got the best of you. Then breaks your heart by reminding you that it’s okay and tomorrow will be a new day and you are loved and can fix that mistake and that sorry is a very powerful word when meant.
I love this book.
Read it. Immediately. Give it to everyone else to read. Read it again when you feel the need to be reminded that you are amazing and cared for and loved and just being you is so special. That you can’t go back in time but you can mend that feeling in your stomach.
I feel like I could wax poetic about this book for eons but I know I could never do it as well as the book has, read it please.
The story follows two friends who have a falling out, told exclusively through the pictures with the text alluding to it but also talking about all these situations. They are sometimes not to best of friends, sometimes make the other feel bad without meaning it, might be selfish, might be caught in their emotions until it all bubbles over and they have THE FIGHT! Then they have the feelings that follow and this book portrays it through the text and the pictures in a way that is so intertwined it feels like they were sitting together writing and drawing and could see into each other’s heads. I love the hyper-colours, it’s so bright and bubbly and feels joyful in a way that tells you how these girls normally feel.
Everything ties in to make a flawless picture book that I am still surprised didn’t make the shortlist, it’s on my shortlist for what that’s worth. I encourage everyone to read it. Then go and give your friends a hug and remind them how wonderful they are…even when they are annoying you.
