This poetic picture book celebrates the interconnectedness of all living things.
Debut artist Soyeon Kim creates glorious three-dimensional artwork for this tour of the universe. "You are stardust," the book begins. Kite-like pieces of a star sculpture seem to shoot out from the star's center. One child each appears inside two of these structures, as if to demonstrate the text, "Every tiny atom in your body came from a star that exploded long before you were born." One especially arresting image depicts the intervening stages of three discrete cells that become a bird, a child and a whale. The author draws parallels between seemingly incredible facts ("you grow entirely new skeletons throughout your life") to events familiar to children ("just as forests grow new trees in place of old ones"). Like the child pictured, who turns cartwheels on an overturned tree, readers, too, will join in this joyful ceremony of the cycle of life. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness