- Picture Books
- Ages 3–7
- Everyday Life
What We'll Build: Plans for Our Together Future
Part of the Oliver Jeffers universeOpen the collection
A tender parent-child picture book about building a shared future together. It pairs beautifully with Here We Are and works especially well as a gift for new parents or young children starting to imagine the wider world.
- Best for3–7
- FormatPicture
- Length48 pp
- Read aloud~10 min
The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Lyrical
- Repetitive
- Second person
Tone
- Warm
- Heartwarming
- Inspirational
- Gentle
- Thought provoking
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
What We'll Build is addressed from a parent to a child, imagining the things they might make together: a home, tools, stories, safety, memories and a future. Rather than following a conventional plot, it works as a lyrical promise, full of symbolic objects and quiet emotional reassurance. Oliver Jeffers uses simple language and carefully staged images to suggest that building a life together involves creativity, protection, repair, love and courage. The book is less comic than many of his earlier titles, but it has strong emotional warmth and is especially resonant for adults reading to children. It is best understood as a companion in spirit to Here We Are: where that book welcomes a child to the planet, this one asks what parent and child might make of the world together.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- Best fit · 3–7
- Read aloud · 2–7
- Independent · 6–9
Prose load
Light
Visual support
Very high
Reluctant-reader friendly
Very
Read-aloud quality
Excellent
Works well for
- Reading aloud
- Bedtime
- Reading together
- Gift-buying
- Reluctant readers
Nothing in the book is likely to concern most parents. Safe to recommend without preview.
Bedtime suitability
5 / 5 · Bedtime-friendly
Sensitive-child
4 / 5 · Good fit
Graphic intensity
1 / 5 · None
Best for
- Parent child bond
- New baby gift
- Bedtime read
- Reassuring picture book
- Family read aloud
Avoid if
- Wants plot driven story
- Wants big laughs
- Prefers character adventure
Particularly good for children who are…
- Anxiety and worry
- Bedtime battles
- Low self esteem
- New sibling
In the classroom
How it works in school.
A tender Jeffers read-aloud about a parent and child building a future together — a warm prompt for talk about hopes, love and what matters.
A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with. Reviewed for the classroom · June 2026.
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
The specific weight is the two doors — a father and daughter listing what they'll build together, a clock, a fortress, a door for letting in and a door for keeping out, the colour and architecture exact on every spread. The Jeffers parent-to-child promise that pairs with Here We Are.
- Family belonging
- Making a difference
Why parents love it
The Jeffers companion-in-spirit to Here We Are — quieter, slower, more weight per page. The 'door for letting in, door for keeping out' beat is one of his best. Strong gift for new parents; reads beautifully aloud. Less comic than his earlier work, more emotionally direct.
- Beautiful illustrations
- Bedtime appropriate
- Conversation starter
- Great writing
About the author & illustrator
Oliver Jeffers.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Come into this from…
Easier or preparing reads — perfect lead-ins.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
More like this…
Books that share themes and topics with this one.
Where you’ll find it
On these reading lists.
Buy or borrow
Pick up a copy.
- Bookshop.org ↗
- Waterstones ↗
- Amazon UK ↗
- Hive ↗
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