When I Wake Up by Jessixa Bagley, Seth Fishman
Published by Greenwillow Books on November 9, 2021
ISBN: 006245580X
Pages: 40
Genres: Adventure
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Goodreads

This book starts with a young child who has been told not to wake their parents until 7:00 AM, so they fantasize about the adventures they could have in the early hours until their parents wake up. There are then four color coded options the reader can follow. The problem is that it only becomes apparent that you can choose to follow a color at a time, as opposed to reading them all in order on every page, a few pages into it and, at that point, it would be awkward to start over.  So, it ends up just being confusing and all over the place. It’s a nice concept but it didn’t quite work for me the way it was supposed to.

(Note: I just realized that directions for reading it are on the back of the book. But given that I read it twice without seeing them, I think they should probably be included before the story starts.)

Reviewed by Sarah Maciejewski, Patten Free Library, Bath