All Around Us

August 21, 2017
A girl and her grandfather contemplate circles, both physical and metaphorical, in this thought-provoking tale of family, community, and interconnection, a debut for both author and artist. As they walk through a suburban neighborhood of shingled houses and chain-link fences, the grandfather suggests that a rainbow overhead is actually a full circle: “The rest of it is down below, in the earth, where water and light feed new life.” Soon, the girl is noticing circles everywhere, including the roundness of their eyes and the way her grandfather “saves the stems, leaves, and seeds” of the vegetables they grow to rebury. “What we take from the earth, we return,” he tells her. On several pages, González’s text follows soaring arcs itself, and circular shapes dominate Garcia’s multilayered illustrations. Her tender portraits highlight the intimate bond between the narrator and her grandfather, while bright, zigzagging lines create a setting that hums with energy, underscoring a connection between people and planet. The family’s mestizo heritage is central to the story, including a tradition of burying a mother’s placenta when a child is born, which the author’s note discusses in more detail. Ages 3–7.

November 15, 2017
Grades 1-3 A young girl with Native American and Spanish heritage learns from her grandfather that circles are all around us. The moon, clocks, wheels, and the sun are all common circles we see almost every day, though we may not notice them. Grandfather points out that a rainbow is only half a circle; the other half is under the surface, representing that what comes from the earth goes back into it again, creating a circle of life. The warm relationship the two share is evident as the girl happily absorbs the lessons, often spiritual in nature, that her grandpa teaches. Garcia's colorful mixed-media illustrations reveal images placed upon paintings with what appears to be chalk, pen and ink, and colored pencil. A circle motif, including the arcing of the text, highlights almost every spread, emphasizing the prevalence of the shape. Joyce Sidman's Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature (2011) can be used as a companion title that also teaches about the pervasiveness of common shapes in nature.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)