This is just a part of Milo’s life and he’s now reaching the age when you begin to put the pieces together that shape your world. It moves away from the uniqueness of the situation, instead focusing on the near normality of visiting an imprisoned mom. Other books like Visiting Day by Jacqueline Woodson or A Card for My Father by Samantha Thornhill, or Hazelnut Days by Emmanuel Bourdier all zero in squarely on the relationship between the child and the parent. What makes it stand out is the simple fact that Milo’s mom isn’t the focus of the book and merely supports its message. Milo isn’t the first picture book one might encounter about having an incarcerated parent by a long shot. It’s visiting hours at her correctional facility, and Milo shows her one picture he doesn’t want to change: The three of them eating ice cream on a stoop on a beautiful summer day. The stories he made up earlier shift and grow kinder. But if this is what Milo thinks of these people, what must they assume about him? It really isn’t until Milo sees that the boy in the suit is going to the same place that he is that he starts to rethink things. Maybe that boy in a suit has servants and gourmet crust-free sandwich squares waiting for him at home. To distract himself from what he's now feeling, Milo draws the lives of the people around him. On the train there are a variety of different fellow riders, like the businessman with the blank lonely face or the woman in a wedding dress with a pup in her handbag. Milo and his older sister are taking their monthly Sunday subway ride. Smart and sweet, it could teach you a thing or two about false conclusions. Milo combines the messaging of those other two books with a gut punch ending and a slow sinking in of the story at its core. But now, looking at Milo Imagines the World I know what they were leaping for. Strong running leaps towards something that they never quite reached. Last Stop on Market Street and Carmela Full of Wishes struck me as good dry runs. You see I haven’t always (how do I put this?) felt the full weight of the Robinson/de la Peña partnership’s charm offensive.
we might do it to a certain book that’s sitting on my lap right now. We form instant thoughts and feelings about the strangers that surround us based on the most superfluous of things.
But what serves you well in the ancient plains, running from a lion, does not serve you particularly well when making snap judgments in the 21st century. When Homo sapiens were tromping about 250,000 years ago, the ability to size up a potential friend or foe instantaneously could mean the difference between life or death. The human brain loves to form assumptions because long ago that adaptive quality could potentially lead to enduring survival.
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