Key Selling Points

• Simple, straightforward text outlines essential hopes that adults have for the young ones they love and asks young readers what hopes they have for themselves.
• Monique Gray Smith in an award-winning, bestselling author and advocate for the mental health and well-being of all children.
• Carefully constructed text addresses aspirations from a safe place to sleep to a life full of love.
• The author’s When We Are Kind was a Quill & Quire Best Book of the Year, and My Heart Fills With Happiness won the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize.
• The illustrator has been nominated for the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award.
• Also available in French and English editions.

Monique Gray Smith is an award-winning, bestselling author and public speaker. Her books cover a broad spectrum of ages, topics and emotions. Woven into all of Monique’s writing and her speaking engagements is the teaching that Love is Medicine. Her books include Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation, My Heart Fills With Happiness, You Hold Me Up, Lucy and Lola, Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience, Tilly and the Crazy Eights, When We Are Kind and I Hope. She has also created the young adult adaptation of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Monique is Cree and Scottish. She lives with her family on the Traditional Territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples.

Gabrielle Grimard has been drawing since she was young. Her passion for drawing and painting led her to pursue studies in fine arts and arts education at Concordia University. After she had her first child, she began her career as an illustrator. She is the illustrator of The Library Bus, which is a Governor General’s Literary Award finalist, and Stolen Words, which was a Bank Street College Best Book of the Year, a Kirkus Best Picture Book of the Year, and the winner of the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award. She lives in Waterville, Quebec, with her family.

As a first-language speaker of Plains Cree (nêhiyawêwin), translator Dolores Greyeyes Sand has devoted her career to teaching and promoting Cree language and cultural literacy at every opportunity, proudly following the path laid by her late mother, Dr Freda Ahenakew CM, SOM.

“Comforting, encouraging sentiments that adult readers and their little ones will appreciate.” - Kirkus Reviews

“The ingredients for happiness…A good platform to discuss children’s hopes, which is useful in both group and one-on-one settings.” - Booklist

“Walks the line of cultural specificity and broad relatability, offering readers multiple ways to connect to the narrative…[An] excellent option for parents looking for something to read with their young children.” - Quill & Quire

“Grimard’s artwork along with Gray Smith’s messages of hope create a synergy and context…Together they successfully teach intangible moments.” - CM: Canadian Review of Materials

“A wonderful message and an opportunity to remind children how loved they are and that they will always have someone cheering them on and supporting them.” - Children's Literature

“Simple but compelling...The poignant message in I Hope will resonate with parents, grandparents and caregivers as they seek all good things for the children within their realm.” - Canadian Children's Book News

“Lovely and warm…The dual language text is important not only for those who speak Cree, but for all those who read it. It helps to remind children that Indigenous people are “still here” and retain their language and culture.” - The Arts Fuse

“A hopeful read for audiences young and old finding themselves and their place in the world and leaving a positive impact while living whole-heartedly and joyfully.” - Children's Literature