If This Were the World

Collaborative recreation yields lessons about collective responsibility in this generative story. After Ms. Lee’s class runs out of imagined games on the 138th day of school, a student pulls an orange from his lunch box and ingeniously proposes, “What if this.../ were THE WORLD?” The concept takes off, but after the orange’s juicy slices prove insufficient for the group’s size, the kids decide they need “something bigger that can provide for everyone.” They pick up a dodgeball, which works well until an older kid takes it. Next up, a tree provides for all “at the same time”—until the children’s collective weight alarmingly breaks off its limbs. Dialogue-driven action from Barr (The Upside Down Hat) successfully captures the spirit of playground politics, while thick chromatic outlining and light shading imbue radiant, rainbow-hued colored-pen and -pencil drawings by Ford (I Love Your Face!) with a boisterousness that aptly conveys the energy of the crowd’s exploits. Object by object, the youths seemingly develop a hands-on appreciation for how to create an equitable society, and a beatific close sees them opening their eyes to the vast world that already surrounds: “Then they played even better.” Ages 4–8. (Feb.)