What Will Your Beautiful Hands Do Today?

Beautiful Hands by Kathryn Otoshi and Bret Baumgarten

Beautiful Hands by Kathryn Otoshi and Bret Baumgarten

The first few times I opened up Kathryn Otoshi and Bret Baumgarten’s recent picture book for kids, Beautiful Hands, and read the opening line, “What will your beautiful hands do today?” I literally shivered with delight….and got goosepimples all over my arms and legs.

The love  for a child, for a particular child, for the child that delights your heart, is so apparent in that question. “What will your beautiful hands do today?” It’s a question I should ask my son every morning.

The book’s text is infused with delight in life, in living, in exploring this wondrous world. The book’s illustrations dance with sheer gladness, reveling in the enchantment of the everyday world, in the creative work of childhood and of life.

Kathryn & Bret

Kathryn & Bret

Otoshi co-wrote the book with her good friend Brett Baumgarten, who died of cancer before the book was published. This is the question he asked his children. Their handprints, and those of Otoshi’s family, were used to create the brightly painted illustrations in the book.

This book is for everyone who wants to seek joy. This book is for everyone who seeks an intentional life, who, as Thoreau challenges us, to “suck the marrow out of life.”

What will your beautiful hands do today?

 

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