Playful and colorful, this sequel to Only One You stars Linda Kranz’s bright, vivid “rockfish,” and cleverly incorporates photographs of the ocean into the background. As little rockfish Adri swims home after exploring the ocean, he notices that, “Some fish swim left/some fish swim right/some fish swim in a circle/some fish swim in a line,” and observes colorful fish and playful fish as well as quiet fish and loud fish.

When Adri returns home, he tells his parents what he has learned. They welcome his enthusiasm and confirm his uniqueness in the world with his mother providing the title line, “You be you.”

With its universal theme that life is the greatest journey of all as well as its celebration of the differences between all creatures, You Be You offers a positive message to readers of all ages. In addition, parents can share with their children the homilies featured on the endpapers and children can search for Adri swimming among the other fish. These features, plus Kranz’s whimsical illustrations, ensure that You Be You will be an instant favorite of young and emergent readers or anyone looking for a little encouragement during trying times.

Ages 4 and up.

—Andrea Zollman, VegBooks

There are many fish in the sea—and they are all different.

Adri, a winsome fish, spends the day exploring, and as he heads home, he can’t help but notice variety in the assortment of finned creatures that surround him. In this companion to the earlier Only One You (2006), which presented Chicken Soup–type advice to the same young fish, Kranz escapes didacticism and provides young readers with an appealing look at diversity. Primarily focused on opposites such as right and left, up and down, big and tiny, smooth and spiny, the bouncy, rhymed text points out differences, while colorful fish swim through the pages illustrating the aforementioned variations. If there is a flaw in Kranz’s stylistic rockfish, it is that the differences are not always obvious, as all of the fish have a similar look, but this will serve to make children examine the pictures more closely. Presented with clarity, the distinctions are nicely summarized by Adri himself when he returns to his parents: “There are so many of us…We all have something special that only we can share.” Youngsters will enjoy the catchiness of the text and the lively nature of the illustrations, while appreciating the concepts found within, and parallels can easily be drawn to differences of all sorts.

A good choice to help children consider similarities and differences. (Picture book. 3-6)

—Kirkus

Flagstaff artist and writer Linda Kranz has published another book featuring Adri, the character from her previous book, Only One You (Rising Moon), which I reviewed in 2009.

Kranz devotees know that Adri is a colorful, meticulously hand-painted oval rock. In You Be You (Taylor Trade, 2011), Adri shares the stage with hundreds of other colorful, meticulously hand-painted rocks.

The message of the book, written for ages 4 to 8, is the same: each person is a unique individual even while being part of a larger group.

You Be You brings a whole new level of excitement to painted rocks. A rounded, smooth rock is a limited canvas but Kranz’s design and the variety of patterns on the rocks makes the book worthwhile before you even read a single word. I looked through the entire book and marveled at the painting and design before I went back to read it.

I imagine kids scavenging their yard and their neighbors’ yards for smooth rocks to paint and creating their own population of rock characters. I envy Kranz the many hours of meditative, painterly joy she undoubtedly…

—Raising Arizona Kid’s Magazine

The follow-up to Kranz’s Only One You features dozens of small, smooth stones painted to look like rainbow-colored fish; each one bears a slightly different pattern of design and color, reinforcing the story’s theme of difference. It has the same hero, too—Adri, who spends his day noticing the many kinds of fish in the ocean: “Some fish are colorful. / Some fish are plain./ Some fish look different./ Some fish look the same.” Photo images of waves and sky serve as a backdrop: the “plain” fish are inked in black but left uncolored, while the colorful ones are festooned with Peter Max–style dots, stripes, and rainbows. “We can learn so much from each other,” says Adri’s Papa, when Adri returns home to share his discovery with his parents. “Life is a grand journey,” adds Adri’s mother. “You be you.” The combination of the colorful, jewellike objects and affirmative messages is likely to make this book as popular as Kranz’s first, which has a loyal following. An added bonus: readers can hunt for Adri, who’s hidden among the other fish on every page.

—Publisher’s Weekly