Today Is the Day

By: Chelsea Lin Wallace

Published by Chronicle Books LLC, 2026-07

School's First Day of Schoo l meets The Day You Begin in this poetic, poignant, and innovative exploration of the infinite possibilities of each day


A day's life is filled with all of the moments that happen around the entire universe-births and deaths and storms and earthquakes. But a day's life is just one in an average lifespan of thousands-how much could it actually matter? In this poignant and delightful picture book, Chelsea Lin Wallace and Adam Rex offer interesting statistics about the events that occur during a day, set against a larger metaphor about the significance of a lifetime. It's meant to inspire and encourage the youngest readers and help them to look at the world just a bit differently.


TIMELESS TOPIC: Classic in sensibility but with fresh, sharp ideas, this book turns a familiar idea-new experiences-on its head.

PERSPECTIVE SHIFT: An empathy read in the most unexpected of ways, this text asks its readers to consider the character of every individual day they live through-and the idea that each one might have its own personality, connected to but distinct from other days'. It's a conceptual idea grounded in reality, in a combination that is just perfect for precisely these readers, who are capable of synthesizing big, real ideas with appealing, fantastical ones.

BITE-SIZE SCIENCE: Chelsea is a fantastic researcher and dives deep into every manuscript she works on. While poetic and poignant on its surface, this manuscript is steeped in real data, and backmatter gives readers some additional facts of all that can happen in a single day.

INSTITUTIONAL APPEAL: Teachers and librarians will find tons of use for this book in the classroom in connection with time units, especially given the facts about time that pepper the book and are in the backmatter. Plus, the potential for classroom writing activities here is enormous.


Perfect for: - Great read-aloud option for parents, teachers, and librarians looking for funny kids' books - Readers looking for equal-parts inspiring and humorous stories - Fans of humor, poetry, and fun facts