Review: What Do You Do With a Chance? by Kobi Yamada and Mae Besom

The What Do You Do... series is by far my favorite, and I think most meaningful, series of books that we own for my son. In What Do You Do With a Chance? We follow the same young boy from What Do You Do With an Idea? and What Do You Do With a Problem? as he is given a chance. At first he is scared and he misses his chance. He regrets it. Then he tries and fails to take his next chance. He feels foolish. He starts letting chances pass him by. They stop coming around. He realizes he really wants a chance but he is scared. Finally, he decides that he doesn't have to be brave all of the time, just at the right time. His fear turns to excitement as he goes after his chance. In the end we learn that when a chance comes by you take it, because you never know when or if it will come around again.

Yamada and Besom's ability to turn these invisible concepts into concrete understand through gorgeous imagery and story is so valuable to me as a parent. These books are great tools to talk about big life issues that are universal yet we often don't fully understand their meanings until we mature. Learning that our ideas can change the world, our problems are truly gifts, and we should never let a chance pass us by are important messages to send to our children. These books do just that in a refined way.

After we read this book quite a few times, my son exclaimed to his dad, "Look! See that yellow? That's a chance!" with such excitement it warmed my heart and filled it with hope that these words and concepts are sinking in. It's such a wonderful feeling as a parent and I am so thankful that a series such as this exists! A must have for all families.

For more on the What Do You Do... series, read my interview with author Kobi Yamada.

Check out my Review of What Do You Do With a Problem?

*Note I was gifted a copy of this book for a fair and honest review.