A girl sitting on a swing hanging from a tree is surprised by a boy who pops down out of the foliage, offering a blue balloon. They join up with another girl, and the three run down a hill, where they see two additional children across a body of water. A page-turn reveals all of them together, playing a hopscotch game where each square represents a different continent, launching an extended fantastical journey that traverses the world, evoking sights, sounds, and smells that span oceans and continents. Despite differences, "we all belong" and "we all live here" on the same planet. Boiger's digitally colored pencil illustrations display specific geographic and architectural marvels (such as the distinctive Greek islands), while others combine architectural styles (including an expansive double-page spread in which domes and minarets mix with pagodas and pyramids). The embrace of diversity is conveyed through the illustrations, which yoke far-flung places and disparate alphabets, prayer styles, and cultures in ways that make them seem harmonious and closer together. Erskine's spare prose lends a light touch in emphasizing the importance of building community: "Me...can be we. You...can come, too...It's all of us." This celebration of global interconnectedness and acceptance of racial, religious, and other differences is a much-needed affirmation of a community that welcomes all with open arms. Julie Hakim Azzam July/August 2021 p.75(c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

K-Gr 2--This simple yet beautiful book reminds readers that they are not alone. With a boy in a yarmulke praying to his hands, and a child next to him on a prayer rug, bowed in the Islamic manner, the book shows how differences need not be divisive, and that commonalities are everywhere.The story starts out with just one girl, "Me," and expands with one child after another, who have various hair colors and skin tones, until it presents the entire earth, stylized, with pyramids in landscapes right next to Western cities. The book cycles back to the original child: "All kinds of kids, thoughtful and free. Sometimes in groups, sometimes … just me." The illustrations sweepingly display different countries, celebrations, and people. VERDICT Children will find something different every time they read the poem, and feel cherished by the message of openness.--Elizabeth Willoughby, John P. Faber Sch., Dunellen, NJ

This book about global inclusivity opens with a series of images of seven children--a nod to the earth's seven continents--in a verdant setting, all gathering to play around blue balloons. Their group represents different genders, races, sizes, and physical ability, with the accompanying refrain of "Different, the same, we all belong." Boiger's stunning, fantastical illustrations, done in pencil and rendered in Photoshop, take readers on a voyage that begins with a wild-haired girl suspended on a swing over the varied Eastern architecture of a desert city. The girl shares her balloon with a boy, providing the trigger for moving from me to we, as Erskine's rhyming couplets tell us, and then to "you can come, too," with the art expanding ever outward. After we see the seven children playing hopscotch on rectangles that each carry a symbol for a continent, we zoom out to a flyover on a magic boat. The flight gives a thrilling global perspective--over oceans, deserts, mountains, cities. Love is the core of the voyage, made manifest as the boat, trailing hearts in its wake, sails through an arch composed of the word love in different languages, including Swahili, Somali, and Hebrew. The breathtaking art carries the message throughout.

Erskine's spare text, relayed in a collective first-person narration, describes how people from all walks of life can come together. "Hearts can unite./ Hands can set free," one spread reads, portraying a sloop filled with children sailing into a body of water followed by a wake of hearts. "Words can be heard./ We can all be," the next spread finishes, with the craft sailing through a watery archway of hearts, overlaid with "love" in various languages. Lighthearted pencil art by Boiger shows children of varying abilities, religions, sizes, and skin tones praying, making music, and playing together, while gentle washes render various cities and natural landscapes. While it's less a cohesive story than a collection of optimistic expressions, this picture book offers an uplifting vision for a unified world. Ages 4--8. (May)

A lyrical celebration of unity and diversity. Though Erskine's text doesn't specify details about the cast of characters, Boiger depicts a multiracial ensemble of children for readers to follow from page to page. The first few pages read: "Me… // can be we. / You… // can come, too. / They… // can be 'Hey!' / It's all of us." Such lines are representative of the text as a whole, which never evolves into a clear verbal story, instead offering a broad affirmation of diversity, inclusion, and community. Boiger's illustrations imagine that community as a global one of diverse children (all are first included in the cover art), with visual cues that mark one child as Jewish, another Muslim, and another with a mobility disability. They set sail together on a ship, which can be read as a metaphorical journey through life, peaceably and joyfully taking in the wonders of the world. The text also describes ways they (and we all) can contribute to the world in which we live: "Some build things up, some create art / Some help the earth, some heal the heart." This isn't a book that addresses why the earth and hearts need helping and healing, perhaps glossing over hardships and struggle in its efforts to deliver a wholly positive, gentle vision of the world as it might be. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 19.4% of actual size.) Purely sweet. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.