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The World and Everything In It
CCBC Review:
Kevin Henkes again connects with young children on their level in a picture book blending a spare, soothing, second-person text with tender visuals to illuminate reassuring truths about our world. It’s a world that contains small things, like “little animals,” “tiny flowers,” and “pebbles,” and big things like the sea, the sun, and the moon. The narrative moves from this elegantly simple expression of scope and scale to a more nuanced exploration—always through scenes, objects, and perspectives familiar to a small child. You can have some small things—a single pebble, a single flower, a kitten in a lap. But you can have some of the big things too: not the entire sea, but a handful of sea water; not the whole sun, but a patch of sunlight on the rug; while the whole, full round moon is visible through a bedroom window. And in a world of big things and small things “and everything in between,” most of the things are in between, “Like you. / And me.” With quiet precision, Henkes assures young children that big, small, and in between, “everything is in the world.” Illustrations done in brown ink and watercolor in a warm pastel palette show each scene dotted with things familiar to young children—an acorn, a raincloud, woolly white sheep—while square outlines cozily contain each image. ©2023 Cooperative Children’s Book Center
Illustrated by Kevin Henkes
Wisconsin author, Wisconsin illustrator
Kevin Henkes grew up in Racine. He attended UW-Madison and lives in Madison.
CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 2-5
Age Range:
Babies/Toddlers (birth – 3)
PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7)
Format:
Picture book
Subjects:
Comparisons
Nature/Environment
Observation
On CCBC Booklist:
Eco-Reading: Selected Books for Children and Teens about Our Earth and the Environment
Publishers:
Greenwillow, HarperCollins
Publish Year: 2023
Pages: 32
ISBN: 9780063245648
CCBC Location: Picture Book, Henkes