Well this was just darn precious.
The artwork in this is just beautiful! I loved the detailed, colourful illustrations.

The concept of this book is wonderful, and the story was sweet.

It was just really lovely.

The biggest takeaway that I got from this book was the outstanding colour palette used in the creative illustrations. Warm and comforting scenes surround the characters throughout the entire book.

The messaging of non-binary children finding friends around every corner was not as overt as I had hoped, and I don’t think pronoun use will be overt enough for young children to focus on due to the imaginative illustrations and the dream scene taking over.

I think the beginning of the story could be developed more to provide more context about searching for friendships, loneliness, etc.

A review was posted publicly on StoryGraph

<i>Robin’s Worlds</i> is pure childhood fantasy. And for that, I think the book’s artwork gets nearly everything right—the colors are bright, the visuals are engaging, the characters are gorgeous. There is no question in my mind that the book has every ability to draw young children to it and keep them flipping the pages.

Unfortunately, problems set in when we actually look at both the language and the story itself. I <i>really</i> wanted to like this book, but from the second I started reading I knew that the writing had some serious problems. The most egregious, of course, is that we truly have very little understanding of what is actually happening in the story—and I say this as an adult. If I have no idea what is going on, how can the author expect a child to?

It’s clear that it has something to do with a birthday—have the adults in this child’s life forgotten the birthday? Is this the first birthday after a tragedy? Are they all busy working? Have they moved? Do they have no friends for a party? Is this lack of birthday party due to their non-binary status? What is it, exactly, that has brought us and this child to this place? Why is it that our poor Robin has to rely on their imagination to celebrate their birthday? And by the time I’ve finished reading, I’m left with more questions than answers.

I appreciate the characters, as the characters are all lovely. I adore Robin and their imaginary friends. I love Robin’s uncle. I’m curious about their parents. But part of the problem is that I truly don’t understand what the connections are and why they are they way they are.

Suffice to say, the writing is also very advanced and stilted. I don’t think this is the sort of book I would want to read to a young child, not only because I don’t think it’s very clear about what is happening, but also because the writing just isn’t good enough. The sentence structure doesn’t work and there’s nothing in here that flows melodically enough for a kid to want to listen to.

I’m a pretty strong advocate for children’s books that are within accessible understanding for specific age groups. This isn’t the kind of book that you could give to an emerging reader as a result of its language, therefore I see this as the sort of book that you want to sit down with your baby or toddler and read to them. But when we have books like that, those books should have a flow to them. There should be language that they will understand and be able to interact with. I’m all for growing vocabularies, but you can’t just throw a ton of it at a kid and expect them to pick it all up.

So, yes, I really wanted to like this book. And I’ll definitely recommend it to non-binary children I meet should that ever occur—but I feel that is truly more so because this book has a non-binary main character in it and those are so far and few between and not because the story or writing is actually any good.

I’ll start off by saying the illustrations in this book are stunning! The usage of color is so pretty. Each page has so much to look at. The story on the other hand, left a bit to be desired. I found the beginning pages to be confusing. There is reference to 1996 and I confused how they knew that. I also hoped for a bit more context related to the magical land. I do think this book has a great message of expectance for young children. It is important to help trans kids to feel seen and heard.

I absolutely adored the art style. It's so special and magical, extremly fitting for the story. And so warm and colorful! I am totaly in love! The message of the book is hella cute and so important! We all need to find the right people in our lifes, no matter if queer, old or young. I will definitly recommend this book!

This book was just absolutely beautiful. From the pictures, to the words, to the concept of the story....highly recommend!

This was a perfectly cute picture book.
I think, this is one of those picture books that it just fun to read and look at. While it is showing queer people living regular lives and having dreams, I don't think children will get the message. They will definitely love the beautiful and colorful illustrations though.

I love the concept of this book, of a non-binary child having an adventure with imaginary creatures when they think that everyone has forgotten their birthday. And I do admit that the pictures are lovely.

Only problem, I have with this book, is that we have no idea what is going on. The creature that comes to take Robin to this world is said to have last visited when their mother and uncle were children. But how would Robin know that?

Are their parents dead? We can only guess. We see ghostly images, and references to when they were around, but no more.

And perhaps this is not a book that has to make sense. Perhaps it is enough to look at the pretty pictures, and have the story be a non-binary child, and that is enough? Perhaps I am just not the right audience.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

The illustrations in Robin’s Worlds are so vivid and whimsical! I loved the colours and illustration style used, it really worked well with the dream storyline.

The story itself wasn’t as clear as I would have wanted and I had to go back at the beginning thinking I missed something. I do love that the main character is nonbinary though!

Robin's Worlds is a very cute children's picture book about Robin, a non-binary kiddo, celebrating their 8th birthday. Most of the story takes place in a fantasy world that Robin finds after following a Cat-Headed Wanderer.

This is not a plot-heavy book, but the illustrations are gorgeous, & I loved all of the fantastical characters that were introduced.

Thanks to NetGalley, Astra Publishing, and Rainie Oet for the chance to read and review!

I am unsure about this text. I did not feel it was as interesting as it could have been and I struggled to see how it could be used in a classroom.

This was very cute! I loved the art work, the colors and the designs were so pretty! Would definitely recommend especially considering it has a nonbinary main character, which is great because that's very rare in children's books!
Sorry if the review sounds a bit incoherent, I'm in a lot of pain today and the pain meds I took for it are making me a bit loopy...

A nonbinary main character in a children's book. This is great! The story felt a little haphazard, but the modern character representation was where the story really shined.

Fun, whimsical art that conveyed the magic of the moment.