WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A CHANCE?

Perfectionists and those with social anxiety will find encouragement in the reminder that embarrassment is temporary and even the fearful can choose to take chances.

The tunic-clad child with shaggy, dark hair and a light complexion who appears in the duo’s prior works (What Do You Do with an Idea?, 2014, and What Do You Do with a Problem?, 2016) is now presented with chances, which materialize in the form of golden, origami-style butterflies. Finally attempting to grasp one, the child falls and is mortified when it seems that others titter in amusement. Deciding it’s better to avoid the possibility of future mishaps, the child ignores other chances but inside feels increasingly bereft, contemplating a safe-but-dull existence. When at last a chance thrillingly does appear again, the child decides to take the leap—literally—and feels jubilant exhilaration. Set in a pseudo-medieval fantasy world, the story makes abstract concepts usefully concrete. An ideal discussion starter at home and in the classroom, it will inspire conversations about humiliations endured (and recovered from) and chances taken (or not).Through the use of color, the watercolor-and-pencil illustrations vividly accentuate the contrast between the drabness of a risk-free life and the brilliant intensity of one fully lived.

This is a book that will grow with readers: use it to inspire conversations of a philosophical nature as well as for practical problem-solving.