Raffi’s timeless music is the soundtrack to many childhoods, and the beloved troubadour’s 1976 album Singable Songs for the Very Young hasn’t aged a bit. With I Wonder If I’m Growing, Jon Klassen, the 2026 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award laureate and “Beluga grad,” orchestrates a picture book adaptation of the titular song from this seminal record that honours milestones, reflects upon life’s imponderables, and hits all the perfect notes.

A child wakes up in the morning with one burning question: “I wonder if I’m growing.” The mysterious process of getting a bit bigger every day is hard to understand and harder to see. In Klassen’s classic deadpan, minimalist illustrations, only the top of the kid’s head, sticky-outy ears, and half of their big, unblinking eyes are visible at the bottom of the pages, with an expanse of white space above wittily emphasizing how much the munchkin has yet to grow.

Sly details (including a trademark hat) abound in the expertly paced scenes. Partially obscured behind the kitchen table, the pensive protagonist gazes down at their lunch. Spurred on by parental assurances (“My mom says / eat your sandwich / it will make you grow up tall”), the child’s expectations are high. On the next page, there are only leftover crumbs on the plate. Without missing a beat, the tot’s pupils focus on the reader to bear witness, “But when I eat / my sandwich / I’m hardly bigger / at all.”

Illustration: Jon Klassen.

This existential preoccupation is mulled over day and night. Incremental shifts in the position of the sun and moon subtly mark the passage of time, along with the changing state of the little nipper’s hair, ranging from out-of-control, messy morning bedhead to freshly washed, combed, and coiffed locks later on.

When the moment of triumph arrives, the emphatic words “HEY! / I can reach / the tap now / for the very / first time / today” are stacked vertically. The tyke’s face, revealing the curve of a contented smile, comes into fuller view.

Nostalgic and new at the same time, I Wonder If I’m Growing is something special to sing about.

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