Review by Booklist Review
López's adaptation of the spiritual first published in a hymnal in 1927 will appeal to children with its repetition, brightly colored illustrations, and smiling multiethnic youngsters. A variegated ball of yarn unfurls and flows around the world while connecting people, animals, and plants from all corners of the globe. The charming illustrations of pen and ink, watercolors, and collage, completed on Adobe Photoshop, are cheerful and employ every color of the rainbow. The pictures include backdrops of mountain, desert, forest, ocean, savanna, town, and city, and display a variety of critters and natural settings. The children, displaying a wide range of hues, are shown wearing ethnic clothing and playing together: dancing the limbo, jumping rope, and engaging in a game of cat's cradle. Music is included along with a short history of the song and López's inspiration for creating his own version. The importance of unity and community among the children is linked with the solemn responsibility of taking care of the earth while being kind to every living creature.--Maryann Owen Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A large variegated ball of yarn lands at a child's feet. First, it seems to entangle her, but the girl quickly figures out what to do: she flings it out lariat style, and it begins to thread together children around the globe, offering a visual celebration of how they care for the planet and each other. All of this unfolds to the lyrics of the classic hymn of unity, against which bright mixed-media art by López (Drum Dream Girl) makes it easy for readers to grasp the yarn as a metaphor for "the whole world" that they steward and share. In one spread ("We've got everybody here in our hands"), the ball and yarn pass over a sea of outstretched hands in different skin tones. On the next ("We've got the whole world in our hands"), the yarn has formed crisscrossing tight wires, enabling a dark-skinned boy who's wearing shorts to greet a white-skinned, bundled-up girl from a snowy climate. Earnest and openhearted, it's the kind of book in which every inhabitant wears a big smile, happy and inspired by the knowledge that each one matters to the others. Ages 3-5. (Oct.) c Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-A beloved spiritual gets an imaginative and anthropocentric rendering in this vibrant picture book celebrating unity. The story opens with a little girl finding a colorful ball of yarn. She hugs it and then throws a thread in the air and starts to follow it. In each successive page, readers see various children as the thread winds its way through the scenes. The children march from sunny deserts to rainy pastures with the lyrics at the top of the pages. Different people and landscapes are introduced in addition to a wide variety of animals. Eventually, this multicolored ball of yarn morphs into a gorgeous hot-air balloon that resembles the globe. The balloon basket is replete with several of the children and animals readers have met along the way, and they are smiling as the book ends with the song's refrain. The conclusion that Earth is a beautiful and multihued place and we are all a part of it is unmistakable. López adeptly brings these modified lyrics to life in an approachable and engaging way for a young audience. The book includes a musical score, a brief history of the song, and a very interesting paragraph on how López creates his art. VERDICT This is an ideal choice for storytime or classroom reading. A must-purchase for most collections.-Amy Nolan, St. Joseph Public Library, MI © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Lspez has adapted the well-known spiritual to invoke a humanistic theme: "We've got everybody everywhere in our hands." His exuberant mixed-media illustrations include digital elements and convey the happiness of a diverse set of international children and animals frolicking in all kinds of environments. Musical notation appears at book's end. Also available in a bilingual English/Spanish edition. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A classic spiritual gets a brand-new twist in this oversized picture book by Lpez in which diverse children share a glorious, colorful world of nature. From windows in a patchwork globe on the cover, children reach out, smiling. A multicolored yarn loops and stretches, leading off the cover page and into the book. The yarn lands in a ball at the feet of a girl against a white background. She fills her arms with it as the words begin: "We've got the whole world in our hands." She then lets the yarn fly upward, and the loops continue across the spread, where other children smile and reach up toward it. As the pages progress, more and more children reach out their hands to "hold" the ever deepening landscape around them ("We've got the sun and the rain in our hands. / We've got the moon and the stars in our hands"). Deserts, forests, mountains, oceans, and all sorts of wildlife appear as children of various skin tones, hair textures, and attire follow the colored yarn; one child who uses a wheelchair appears in the first few pages but then disappears. The children begin to play with the yarn and with one another, until the children and animals, backgrounded by landmarks from different parts of the world, share one page, then fly off together in a hot air balloon. This unconventional interpretation of the classic song finds a modern application with joyful illustrations that send a message of hope and power to today's children. A bilingual English/Spanish edition publishes simultaneously.A beautiful vision of a global community. (Picture book. 2-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
