THE SMALLEST SPOT OF A DOT

A rhymed celebration of human individuality within our genetic commonality.

In simple language, media personality Davis and Tyler (The Skin You Live In, 2005) highlight twin notions, one biophysical, the other more conceptual: We all share “billions and billions of tiny gene-dots,” but there is just one dot each that makes us who we are—“Your me-my-mine dot is the who that is ‘You.’ It’s what gives us a hint and a colorful clue / About why you look the way that you do, and why your dot has your only-you hue.” Because that unique dot, the authors go on to claim, governs not only skin color, but facial features, eye color, food preferences, and behavioral tendencies, it actually represents not a single gene but entire chromosomal constellations and even perhaps some epigenetic influences. Still, if this leaves some confusion in its wake that will need later instruction to clear up, the point that for all our “different faces and bodies and names” we are “still 99.9% the same” is a good one to make early and often. Fleming sweetens the presentation even more with a thoroughly diverse cast of, mostly, romping, dancing, and playing children (some of whom use wheelchairs) with outsized heads and big, widely set eyes. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Fuzzy on biological specifics but sings a buoyant message about how they make us the same for all our differences.