We Are All Under One Wide Sky
Written by Deborah Wiles
Illustrated by Andrea Stegmaier
We are all under one wide sky.
Two clouds glide by.
Three songbirds sail the air.
Four fir trees over there…
One through ten and back again; morning, noon, and night, we all share the same wide sky.
Published by: Sounds True
Pages: 32
ISBN-10: 1683646339
ISBN-13: 978-1683646334
Buy the Book: Bookshop.org, Sounds True, Amazon
Overview
Children giggle, whirligigs spin ’round, and songbirds sail the air in this beautiful, lyrical picture book. We Are All Under One Wide Sky weaves together images of children, nature, and architecture from around the world, both celebrating our diversity and showing how we are the same in so many ways.
Whether tending sheep in Afghanistan, watering tulips in the Netherlands, or flying kites in the United States, children enjoy one another and the spacious world around them. They share picnics and play music, play games and climb trees. A peace anthem with a timely and important message, We Are All Under One Wide Sky shows us that what we have in common is what is most importantfamily, laughter, love, nature, and friendship.
We all share the same wide sky.
Praise for We Are All Under One Wide Sky
This lyrical counting book is a reminder that no matter what they look like, where they live, or whom they call a family, children all around the world live under the same sky.
The book’s first half is a poem that counts from one up to 10, incorporating imagery ranging from two clouds and three songbirds to ten whirligigs. In the second half of the book, the poem counts back down to one, this time starting with nine shadows and culminating with two “sleepyheads” before ending “under one wide sky,” a refrain that repeatedly pulls the text together. While no countries or faiths are named, the characters and locations in the illustrations clearly hail from all over the world. In one illustration, for example, a young boy wears a yarmulke while in another, an image of what appears to be Australia’s Uluru fills the background. The characters include a child who appears Black, a brown-skinned hijabi, and other kids displaying a variety of hair textures and skin colors. The sparse verse, related in couplets, is studded with gorgeous imagery and ingeniously chosen verbs: On one page, for example, the author describes how shadows “butter” the ground. The illustrator’s use of a muted palette lends the pictures a gentle, ethereal feel that ably complements the text.
A work of understated beauty that will delight both children and the adults who read to them.
—Kirkus, starred review
Resources
Storytime kit coming, from Sounds True — watch this space!