The Whole Wide World and Me

PreS-K—In a simple poem of appreciation, a young girl feels at one with nature ("I am a small part of it all."). Striking illustrations—created with pencil, ink, torn tissue, and cut paper—are rendered in brilliant colors of red, blue, purple, green, and a pop of yellow. Metaphors and similes are used as the girl compares herself to a flower, a fish, and a wave while spending a day outside admiring her surroundings. Sitting in a tree looking at a white cloud in the blue sky, splashing in the sea while a whale swims offshore, and gently playing with a red ladybug with black polka-dots, the child appears to cherish her world and her fellow creatures. A large font is used and placed on double-spread pictures, allowing the book to serve as a beginning reader as well as the impetus to a discussion of our place in our world.