Infinity and Me

Nancy Wu expresses the youth, verve, and mercurial feelings of Uma as she wonders at the number of stars in the huge, cold sky. Gabi Swiatkowska's illustrations show the small girl dwarfed by the celestial immensity she is just beginning to appreciate. Uma begins a quest to discover what infinity is by asking peers and elders their views. Wu's narration blends beautifully with story's sound effects and musical accents, and she successfully differentiates characters. In particular, she measures Uma's growing confusion and frustration as her wish to understand becomes more emotional than intellectual. Uma triumphs in the end, determining a stance on infinity that comforts her, and Wu voices her satisfaction. The author reads an afterword that includes quotes given and read by young children. Together, the audio and print book encourage curiosity and discussion. S.W. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

September 24, 2012
Dark-haired Uma sits wide-eyed in her backyard under a black, star-studded sky, torn between the charm of her new red shoes and the overwhelming size of the universe. “How many stars were in the sky? A million? A billion? Maybe the number was as big as infinity.” Friends, teachers, and family give Uma new ways to think about infinity—as an endless succession of ancestors, or as a noodle cut in half and in half again (Swiatkowska draws Uma cutting a python-sized noodle with a knife, demonstrating that things can become infinitely small, too). She struggles with the sheer enormity of the idea: “Actually, my head was starting to hurt from all these thoughts.” It’s not until Uma’s grandmother notices her shoes that Uma can make infinity her own: “y love for her was as big as infinity.” Hosford’s (Big Bouffant) story is as much a look into the interior life of a sensitive girl as it is a meditation on a mathematical concept—a task for which Swiatkowska’s (This Baby) idiosyncratic portraits are perfectly suited. Ages 5–10. Agent: Tracey Adams, Adams Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Emily Van Beek, Folio Literary Management.