When I Grow Up

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Inspired by Tim Minchin's hit song WHEN I GROW UP from MATILDA THE MUSICAL, the book takes a humorous yet moving look at adult life from a child's perspective.

A hugely exciting picture book collaboration by internationally celebrated musician-comedian Tim Minchin and award-winning illustrator Steve Antony is an absolute treat for all ages.

Grown-ups surely have all the fun as they must eat sweets every day, climb the biggest trees and watch cartoons till their eyes go square.

But do they really...?

The perfect gift for any young Matilda The Musicalfans - which has been playing in the West End since 2011 and won over 70 international awards Steve Antony is an award-winning writer and illustrator of 20 picture books Look out for Naughty by Steve and Tim, hitting shelves in October 2022!

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

Three children imagine that adult life means finally having the freedom to do everything they aren't allowed or aren't able to do as kids. They'll be able to "eat sweets every day on the way to work" and go to bed late; they'll be smart enough to know the answers and brave enough to "fight the creatures that you have to fight beneath your bed." Antony's color-washed line drawings sprawl across the pages, bright, cheerful, and the picture of abundance: there's a grassy hilltop, a library stuffed with books, bedrooms filled with cozy quilts and pillows, and shopping carts stuffed with goodies. His characters may yearn for greater autonomy, and their picture of maturity may be skewed, but this world is a pretty benevolent place. And that's the problem: readers are presented with a nice picture but not a very compelling journey. It's a book most likely to be remembered for being, in tone and mood, pretty much the opposite of its source material: Minchin's darkly wistful, tear-inducing second-act song from the musical Matilda. Ages 3-5. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

School Library Journal Review

PreS-Gr 1-This ode to growing up is inspired by Tim Minchin's hit song from Matilda the Musical and is paired with Antony's mixture of gray pencil and color sketches. The translation from stage to story book unfortunately loses something along the way. Instead of plot, intrigue, or resolution, the repeating refrain of "When I grow up" summarizes all the benefits of growing up and getting to do whatever one wants. Some highlights of adulthood are simple, like getting to "have treats every day" and others are a little more nuanced, like being "strong enough to carry all the heavy things you have to haul around with you when you are a grown-up." The art does its best to propel the lines forward but the poignant fallacy of the refrain will be utterly lost on a young audience. VERDICT This title seems more like a humorous pick for a graduation present, given that an adult reader is likely to remember with nostalgia what it was like to look forward to growing up.-Jenna Boles, Greene County Public Library, -Beavercreek, OH © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Horn Book Review

Repetition in the lyrics to Minchin's song from the Tony Awardwinning musical Matilda may make for a catchy chorus, but on a page in picture-book treatment, the repetition seems rather pointless: "When I grow up. When I grow up. When I grow up." Energetic illustrations of kids indulging their fantasies of adulthood convey some of the song's sweet childlike yearning. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Minchin's affecting song from the Tony Award-winning musical Matilda gets the picture book treatment."When I grow up, I will be / tall enough to reach / the branches that / I have to reach // to climb the trees you get to climb // when you're grown-up." Three grayscale children (one with cropped hair and pale skin, one with long hair in a ponytail and glasses, and one with darker skin and two curly puffs) in shorts, T-shirts, and sneakers journey through increasingly whimsical double-page spreads. Imagining the freedoms of adulthood, the children fantasize about loading grocery carts with "treats" and battling "the creatures that you have to fight beneath the bed each night to be a grown-up." The final spread shows the original trio at dusk under a large tree, looking wistfully at the branches: "When I grow up. / When I grow up. / When I grow up." Spreads in dusty pastels sometimes clash with the children's bold, primary-colored outfits, but they otherwise create a pleasant calm. The illustrations portray a relatively diverse array of characters, including children who use wheelchairs and children with varying hair textures and (gray) skin tones. Unfortunately, however, without the melody and the context of the musical, the bittersweet poignancy of the song is lost and the lyrics fall flat.Not as smooth as many other song-to-picture book titles; harmless but ultimately unsatisfying. (Picture book. 3-5) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.