The title When I Grow Up I Want to Be a Chair is confusing at first. But once I got into the things, I realized two things. One, there must have been a translation (the flow of the text was off for me, and that’s usually because of a translation) and the second the idea is that the girl wants to be a chair because it is useful, it belongs, it is good. This is compared to how she feels about herself, which is maybe less important, less useful, as she is the chair and it is her. But of course, as you go along everyone learns that the idea of being a chair is less physically wanting to be a chair, but be what the chair represents: freedom, being helpful.
Ryan Rae Harbuck took a universal idea of wanting to be part of things, the community and be useful, but takes it to a different level with a seemingly abstract idea and absurd idea. This is accented by Barry Lee’s illustrations, which unfortunately, were not to my personal tastes. They were too abstract for me. The extremes of the colors, details and forms made me think things were less serious than they should have been. Then again, that does help make something that is a heavy idea or subject into something lighter and perhaps easier to understand and explain.
In the end, things are not going to be for everyone, but everyone can find something to enjoy, think about or relate to. Overall, this might look like a young book, but it has a deeper, older setting as well. The included extras will allow the book to grow with the child.
