There Must Be More Than That! by Shinsuke Yoshitake
Children today sometimes overhear adults bring up doomer philosophy, whether intentional or not. This can be very stressful for them to hear and difficult to process. So what do you do if your older brother tells you that there will be no future when you grow up? Thanks to a talk with your wise grandma, you learn about the possiblity of multiple futures! What a neat trick, huh? When the main character learns this, the reader then follows her throughout the house as she explains to each family member the infinate possible futures that can occur and even persuades her brother that nothing is ever written in stone.
The story manages to take the power away from something as scary as the future and instead turn it into a tool to empower the reader. The author includes creative and funny future possibilities intermixed with realistic future possibilities, causing the reader to laugh while also taking the lesson seriously. The images are in a modern-cartoon style that looks particularly cute and endearing.
I would not suggest this book to be a used as a storytime due to the images being scattered throughout the pages in almost a comic-like design as well as its multitude of sentences and words on each page. However, it is not impossible to use for a storytime for those who enjoy a bit of a challenge. Great for second and third graders.
Bibliography
Princess Arabella at the Museum by Mylo Freeman
Shelf Adulation 