Tomorrow’s Lily
by Chris Raschka; illus. by the author
Preschool    Greenwillow    32 pp.
2/24    9780063049376    $19.99

Brushy watercolors in sunny pastel tones illustrate a meditation on change in the form of a paean to the daylily. Raschka’s big blue text (which looks hand-lettered) guides readers through the rhyme: “Monday’s lily / blooms // for the baby. // Tuesday’s lily blooms / for the cat. // Wednesday’s lily blooms for Mommy. / Thursday’s lily blooms // just like that.” Each double-page spread zooms in on a lily in bloom; viewers will notice that yesterday’s shriveled-up blossom droops from a different stem in nearly every composition, emphasizing the flowers’ evanescence. Bugs, rabbits (one “the baby,” the other “Mommy”), a gray tabby, a turtle, and other critters happily explore the greenery surrounding the lilies. In structure and rhythm, Raschka’s verse recalls the nursery rhyme “Monday’s Child,” but its intent is far lighter (nobody is “full of woe” here) and less deterministic. “Sunday’s lily blooms for her and him,” we learn, and “Tomorrow’s lily blooms for them”; readers are free to interpret this in multiple ways, including as an affirmation of gender diversity. Likewise, lines that address lilies’ mortality do not dwell on death but touch on coming and going, and on lasting memories. Even as the verses’ focus expands, the illustrations never lose their gentle sweetness, with the bugs, ants, and butterflies that inhabit this garden providing visual counterpoint. Whether read literally or metaphorically, this lilting ode gifts little ones a dollop of seasonal sunlight.

From the January/February 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.