All The World

Stop, look, and marvel at the world around you! This is author Scanlon's invitation and illustrator Frazee's gift to listeners. The book celebrates simple things--a stone, a shell, a hive, the sun--and uses them to inspire an awareness of the world and the peace, trust, and love that envelop us all. Joanne Woodward narrates gently, allowing listeners to pore over Marla Frazee's award-winning illustrations. Woodward shares her excitement for certain ideas, such as the pleasure of a garden, with subtle emphasis and elongates phrases that require deeper appreciation. Jaunty background music modulates in volume and tempo in keeping with Woodward's pace. An interview with Marla Frazee completes the production. A.R. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Starred review from August 24, 2009
Tackling a topic no smaller than the world itself, Scanlon (A Sock Is a Pocket for Your Toes
) and Frazee (A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever
) invite children to explore a variety of its settings, starting with a beach where a young interracial family plays: “A moat to dig, a shell to keep/ All the world is wide and deep.” Tucked into a corner of the scene is a farmer's market, which becomes the focus of a subsequent spread (“Tomato blossom, fruit so red/ All the world's a garden bed”). This clever linking of Frazee's blithesome watercolor and pencil-streaked illustrations echoes the book's larger goal: to show the world's connectivity. The lively verse is consistently reassuring, even as life's stumbling blocks get their moment (“Slip, trip, stumble, fall/ Tip the bucket, spill it all/ Better luck another day/ All the world goes round this way”). Frazee's warm, endearing vignettes—a mother studying with her baby, grandparents embracing in their bathrobes—are a joyous counterpart to Scanlon's text. Together they create an empathic, welcoming whole. Ages 3–7.