WHO IS THE WORLD FOR?

This Scottish poet’s first picture book is a glorious hymn to the resplendent beauty and bounty of mother earth. Youngsters of every species ask their parents “who is the world for?,” to which each parent replies that the world belongs to them, their offspring. “Why, look around you / sings her mother [a whale]. The world / with all its deep roomy seas for you / to voyage through, all its million-kinded fish / that will part for you, all its rich seaweed, / its watery lights, its sea sounds / that speak so clearly to you— / the world is for you!” Pow captures the multifaceted beauty of the earth through the various animals’ responses. Each species treasures something different about their corner of the world: bears revel in the abundant caves and endless forests; lions relish the heat of the plains; while hippos savor the inky mud ponds. Pow’s prose illuminates the consanguinity of the earth’s inhabitants as the terrain moves from the sun-soaked African plains to the starlit sky of a darkened city. When the young boy questions his father about the world, the father’s response encompasses all the previous animals and habitats, definitively declaring that the world belongs to everyone and everything. Ingpen’s full-page pencil and watercolor illustrations are spectacular in their detail and realism. Deft strokes capture the furry majesty of a full-grown mother bear in one picture while minuscule fish glinting in the far-off depths convey the vastness of the seas in another. Combined, the contemplative text and graceful artwork make a heartfelt testimony on behalf of mother earth and her many children. (Picture book. 4-8)