Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson

When people look down their noses at academics who study children’s literature because it isn’t literary or highbrow enough, books like Milo Imagines the World are the perfect example that children’s literature is literary, layered, complex, and worthy of study — while also being really beautiful and necessary storytelling for children to experience.

What Last Stop on Market Street does for bus rides, Milo Imagines the World does for subway rides. More specifically, in this story, Milo is on a long subway ride with his sister and he is very nervous about the destination in which he is going. To pass the time, he observes the people around him and draws stories that he imagines their lives to be. At the end of the book the reader discovers where he was going that made him so nervous and excited. While the story is certainly a social commentary, it is not didactic or preachy and it will certainly elicit great classroom discussion about assumptions and judgments we make about people.

Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson
Published: February 2, 2021
Publisher: G.P. Putnam Sons
Pages: 40

Genre/Format: Picture Book
Audience: Primary/Middle Grade
Disclosure: Review copy provided by publisher

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