Small World

PreS-Gr 1–A young girl fascinated by the world around her grows up and journeys to outer space. When Nanda is born her entire world is contained within the circle of her mother’s arms, “safe, and warm, and small.” As she grows, her curiosity and wonder grow in proportion to the world around her. She learns more and grows bigger and bigger. Her exploration eventually takes her far away from her home all the way into outer space, where she can look back and see her home planet, “safe, and warm, and small.” The text joyfully describes both the appearance and makeup of the world around Nanda with alliterative and detailed language, such as, “pinecone-prickled mountains” and “cables and cogs and odds and sods.” The gouache, ink, and pencil illustrations are filled with multitudes of fractal and geometric patterns both large and small. Nanda and her family have brown skin and the background in the story is filled with an abundance of diverse characters. A brief author’s note on the final page gives insight into the author’s inspiration for the story and invites readers to consider where they might want to go, and what they want to their world to look like when they grow up.