Animated Movie Material

Grow: Secrets of Our DNA
Written & Illustrated by The Fan Brothers
Age Level: 5-9 Years
Published September 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Best Picture Books of 2020

Grab some popcorn and settle in.

Reading this book feels exactly like watching a Pixar movie, but minus the guilt about screen time.

This book is gripping and cinematic due to its enthralling storyline and the fact that the illustrations are so vivid and detailed that they feel more like animation than drawings. At 72 pages (don't worry, they're light on text and heavy on illustrations), it unfolds like a movie with a full story arc.

You’re all, “Cool, but what is it about?” It’s about a pet store that creates genetically modified pets in an underground lab. The cute ones are stocked on the shelves and sold, but the ones that don’t work out are designated as “Failed Projects” and get recycled into an improved version. Barnabus and his friends are Failed Projects. But they like who they are, and they don’t want to be remade into something “better.” So Barnabus leads their escape.

“The world was much bigger than Barnabus and his friends ever could have imagined. And just like Pip said, there were mountains that reached to the sky, lit with their own stars.”

There are amazing messages throughout about loving who you are, accepting yourself with all your imperfections, and also heartwarming moments of friendship, teamwork, and inclusion.