"All the World" by Liz Garton Scanlon (Caldecott Honor book)

     All the World follows a set of young children as they start their day at the beach, visit a farmer's market, endure a storm, interact with family, and end up back at home ready for bed.  In between start and finish, the reader sees how people interact with their surroundings and that we are all a part of a whole.
     What I liked about this book is that it not only emphasizes human relationships, but also our relationship with our natural surroundings.  The day starts out sunny and fun at the beach, but later a rain storm starts showing that there are fun times and there are hard times.  "Better luck another day/All the world goes round this way," states the author.  The illustrations are whimsical and detailed, which helps make the rhyming verses flow from page to page.  Scanlon points out that interaction with people and nature are important.  The books shows children that it is sometimes easy to live our lives in our own little bubble and forget that we are a part of the whole world that is here and now. 
     My reaction to this book was mostly influenced by thoughts of my own children.  We stay so busy that from day to day, that we forget that there is so much going on around us than just what we're doing at the moment.  The vacations we've taken, the ballgames we rush to, going to school and to work--it makes us a part of the bigger picture.  We usually see our lives as our own, but we are a part of a whole.  This book shows relationships we have with each other and with our natural surroundings and points out that we are all part of one big world.
     The new thing I learned about children's literature is that concepts can be captured with beautiful, rhyming verses.  All the World encompasses words that bring about feelings of cold and hot, happiness and love, and words that capture smells and the feeling of hunger.  The exciting day that these children have include so many feelings and all are explained with rhyme and exceptionally drawn illustrations done by Marla Frazee. 
     Like her other children's books, Scanlon uses poetry to tell her story.  The same goes for her book Noodle and Lou which tells the story of Noodle the worm who wakes up feeling blue and Lou the blue jay, who tries to pep him up.  Noodle and Lou emphasizes the importance of supporting one another.  Similarly, All the World emphasizes how relationships to those around us are important.  Included in this giant world are the feelings we have.  The end of the book says it all, "Hope and peace and love and trust/All the world is all of us."