Made for Me - Zack Bush - ★★★.¾

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AUTHOR: Zack Bush
ILLUSTRATOR: Gregorio De Laurentis
GENRE: Children's Picture Book
PUBLICATION DATE: March 1, 2018
RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: A sweet bedtime story from a father to his child. Cute graphics, great sentiments.


This bedtime story is written from a dad’s perspective, addressing his little child as they prepare for bedtime. As there’s no mom in the story or illustrations, the dad is a hand-on father, doing everything for his child without hesitation.

Each page contains only a two-line verse, so the look is quite clutter-free. The couplets are written in simple rhythmic prose. Most of the rhymes are well done, with only a couple of them feeling forced. However, the tenses are all over the place, with the text juggling across past, present and future randomly. There are also a couple of redundancies, such as ‘small tiny hands”. The issues I mentioned are mostly ones that only adults with notice so kiddos shouldn’t have a problem with this sweet book.

I love the affirmation that is repeated once every few pages: “Of all the children that could ever be, You are the one made just for me”. What a lovely thought for kids to know!

The illustrations are cute, with the soft colours working perfect for the mood. The gigantic father represents how he sees his child literally as being his little one. I also love how the child’s gender is kept neutral in the story, both in the text and in the illustrations. The book can thus be used for a child of any gender in real life.

All in all, a good bedtime story for the littlest of littlies. This will work well as a bedtime read for ages 0-5.

My thanks to Familius for providing the DRC of “Made for Me” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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