"Hope and peace and love and trust... all the world is all of us."
Title: All the World
Author: Liz Garton Scanlon
Illustrator: Marla Frazee
Publisher: Beach Lane Books
Date of Publication: 2009
Genre: Fiction
Readability Lexile: Not Found
The author and illustrator say that they like to spend their time, “quietly trying to make sense of our big, round world by creating picture books.” That is a perfect description of this book. It is a book that helps children realize their place in the world. The author explains throughout the book common truths of mankind and the world as a whole. The story shows all kinds of people coming together to live life and love life. Some of the things that the author tells about the world are: All the world is wide and deep, a garden bed, is old and new, has got its sky, goes round this way, is cold and hot, can hold quite still, is you and me, is all of us. This is a beautiful book that EVERYONE can appreciate.
Evaluation:
I loved this book! It is so simple and yet so meaningful and full of life. This book doesn’t have much of a plot but its themes tell the story of friendship, family, and the importance of the little and big things in life. This story follows a family and their friends through a course of a day at the beach and a garden and at a café and their home later that evening. The setting fits perfectly with this carefree, yet importantly themed book. The author includes people of all races, ages, and of all backgrounds, and animals as well. The author doesn’t use any offensive language in this story.
Literary Elements:
1. Theme: The theme of this story is wonderful and so meaningful for everyone. This story is saying that everyone and everything has a place in this big world and that everyone is important and special in their own way. What a great message to pass on to children. If everyone had this mindset, the world would be even more beautiful.
2. Rhyme: This story rhymes and reads like a long poem. The rhyming makes this story fun to read aloud. The author rhymes words such as sand-hand, keep-deep, hum-yum, red-bed, crown-down, blue-new, fly-sky, fall-all, day-way, spoon-soon, pot-hot, chill-still, kin-violin, and knee-me-see.
3. Rhythm: When reading this story out loud or to yourself, it is hard not to follow a specific rhythm that the author has planned. This also makes this book fun to read out loud and allows you to read it fast or slowly.
Illustrations:
The illustrations in this book are just as beautiful as the theme. They help to explain the words that the author uses to get her point across about the world. They depict a happy family and their diverse, just as happy, group of friends. The setting is also shown through these pictures. The beach scenes and the other locations depicted are so well that you can see how they connect to the stories meaning and theme. The illustrator uses many colors, textures, and soft lines to illustrate this book.
Mini-Lesson Idea:
I would use this book to teach theme. This theme encompasses so many other worthwhile ideas that are so important for students and everyone to be exposed to. I would read this story out loud to students and then discuss the theme. I would have them write about their place in the world and why they believe they are here. This will be a very long project that will involve a lot of discussion and use of other books. I did an assignment like this in 9th grade and though it was difficult to write, it is now interesting to look back on it and see how I have changed and how I have stayed the same. It let me really think about myself and what I want to do in my life on this big, beautiful Earth.
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