OUR WORLD

A shaped survey of Earth’s lands, seas, seasons, weather, and biomes.

The book is printed on sturdy stock and cut in a half-circle perched on a base so that it opens into snow globe–shaped leaves and can then be displayed in the round. The flyover offers young armchair travelers a series of eye-catching vistas ranging from “forests tall. // And grasslands wide” to “Continents large, islands small, / Salty seas surrounding all.” Interspersed descriptive notes in much smaller type and plainly addressed to an older audience go into general detail about each stop along the way. Feng’s soft focus natural scenes offer plenty of animals but no humans to see aside from an opening glimpse of a pair of snorkelers angled away from viewers and a few minute figures later on. All of the scenes (a line about how some grassland creatures eat grass and some “eat other grassland creatures!” notwithstanding) have a serene, peaceable-kingdom vibe. The point of view broadens at last to a map showing labeled continents and larger bodies of water, then a more distant view of our planet in space precedes a final cozy house beneath a starry sky, which serves as a reminder that our planet is: “a living home for everyone.

An artful, horizon-expanding introduction to our “living home."