If You Believe in Me

A young bear reflects on the skills they’ve learned, the challenges they’ve navigated, and the “Somehow-Someday Things/ That might just happen to me”—all made possible by the steadfast support of loved ones. In Wells’s signature art, a fuzzy, sweet-faced brown cub happily turns cartwheels, builds a massive castle out of blocks, and stands brave under dark nighttime skies, as rhyming text repeats the sentiment, “You believe in me.” The power of unconditional love and support fuels the bear’s vision of the future, too, when imagining what tomorrow will bring: “No dream’s too big/ because you told me// I believe in you.” The creamy palette and tender, recognizable childhood moments between attentive adult bears and the cub—at the dinner table, taking a walk—fit comfortably alongside other entries in Wells’s oeuvre. Ages 3–6. (Sept.)