Age: Kindergarten-1st grade

A beautiful partnership between a motivational story and illustrating the ambiguous. The Yes is a one-dimensional creature that finds himself being bogged down by a dusty cloud of Nos. Whenever he asks the cloud of Nos to do something, true to nature, they say no, no, NO! But, "The Nos were not a thing, and the Yes was a great big thing." So, the Yes continues to defy the Nos at every turn until they blow away on the wind.

The author and illustrator are able to capture a concept and two essential life words in this wonderful addition to self-motivation and bullying books. Perhaps what is most powerful is that the Nos are not depicted as a person, thus avoiding demonizing a particular feature of someone. Although the idea is a bit more abstract, the text is well written to help walk kids through the nothingness of the Nos.

Be careful reading this with the preschool crowd because of the slightly abstract concept and the slightly dangerous activities that The Yes insists on partaking in. Like all books, discussion before and after the book help alleviate misinterpretations.