Tomorrow Bright Before Us
illustrated by Victoria Ball
Nosy Crow

This weighty tome is absolutely overflowing with wise words and provides 366 quotes, one for every day of the year.
Readers will delight in discovering words on every topic and from a wide range of inspirational voices that belong to thinkers, writers, artists, scientists, leaders, activists and sports stars.

Among the literary legends are Philip Larkin, Maya Angelou, Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charlotte Bronte, Toni Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Langston Hughes and William Shakespeare. Classic Children’s Writers include Tove Jansson, E.B. White, Malorie Blackman, Michael Morpurgo, Joseph Coelho, Robert Frost, A.A.Milne, Beatrix Potter, Philip Pullman, Grace Nichols, Benjamin Zephaniah, Astrid Lindgren, Norton Juster, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Rabindranath Tagore, Terry Pratchett and Lemony Snicket.

Marcus Rashford is among the Sports Stars as are Mo Farah, Serena Williams, Muhammad Ali and Jesse Owens.
Amazing Activists voices include Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Frederick Douglass, Helen Keller, Rosa Parks, Mary Seacole, Malala Yousafzai, Amanda Gorman and Greta Thunberg.

No Inspiring Icons list would be complete without David Attenborough, and we also have quotes from Dolly Parton, Michelle Obama, Anne Frank and others, nor would that of Super Scientists be complete without Stephen Hawking, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Jane Goodall and Mae Jemison.

Awesome words from awesome people indeed. There are also occasional proverbs.

There are various ways in which you might read this book: starting on the new year’s day quote and continuing, one per day through to 31st December. Or, you could choose days important to you such as yours, family and friends’ birthdays, a wedding anniversary. I don’t celebrate my birthdays so turned first to the date of my wedding anniversary and found: ‘Maybe home is somewhere I’m going / and have never been before.’ (Warsan Shire) That seems appropriate.

I then turned to my best friend’s birthday and read ‘We can’t save the world by playing by the rules. / Because the rules need to be changed. / Everything needs to change. / And it has to start today.’ I think she’d wholeheartedly agree with Greta Thunberg whose words these are.

Educators may want to start a lesson or a circle time and see where it leads their class, you could use one as a school assembly focus.

Victoria Ball’s gorgeous illustrations are such that readers will want to linger over, ponder and explore making this a truly special book to grow with, to return to and to treasure; and equally it’s a book to give.