This Small Blue Dot

Joining other primers to life on Earth (Jeffers’s Here We Are and Blackall’s If You Come to Earth), this story by Australian artist Sworder opens with sensitive, photo-realistic images of the child who narrates. Drawn in soft pencil with straight black hair and glasses, the child bends over an infant—a new sibling, perhaps: “Welcome to Earth.” The resulting narrative celebrates life in all its forms (“Elephants and dung beetles! Pears and butterflies!”) and shares “some of the things I’ve worked out so far.” For starters, “We shouldn’t be in a rush to grow up” (the figure is shown smothered in hilariously oversize clothing), imagination lets one create worlds with crayon and paper, and beauty lives within. Though an awkward line skims over the legacy of “explorer” ancestors who “sailed across seas,” the narrator also places the infant’s life in the context of history: “You are the very newest in this long line of people.” Amplifying the words with scribbly, colorful crayon illustrations, Sworder centers a child’s impassioned, impulsive voice sharing an experience of human existence. Ages 3–5. [em](Jan.) [/em]