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Author: Margaret H. Mason Illustrator: Holly Welch
Retail Price: Paperback • $8.95 | Hardback • $16.95 This is a comforting bedtime book that will reassure little ones that they—every one of them—are connected to the world both physically and mystically. They belong, and are part of something meaningful. The story is a simple nesting-doll-like journey. With a few well-chosen words and rich suggestive illustrations, the reader is taken from the outer edges of the universe to a planet, a village, a home, a room, into the heart of a warm, sleepy child, and finally to an awareness of love that somehow encompasses it all. We each have our place inside the All, and the All has its place inside each of us. This little book succeeds in bringing the idea of interconnectedness and universality to a level young children can understand. |
- Mom’s Choice Award (Silver: Bedtime Stories)
Mason and Welch present a story that folds in on itself and then out. Swirling colors and abstract spirals telescope from the universe, to the galaxy, to a valley and a village, to a home, a child’s bedroom, the child snuggled beneath a quilt, to the child’s own heart. With a quote from Einstein as its touchstone, the text opens into sweet rhythms: “Inside all / Is a universe / Energy flowing. / Inside the universe / Is a galaxy / Milky and glowing.” With richly colored mixed-media swirls that resolve into hills and trees, windows and bedrooms, each opening displays double-page, full-bleed pictures with a single white star superimposed throughout. The last line of each three-line text curves to echo the spiral motif. The images tend toward the abstract but are recognizable, creating a very gentle and quite moving bedtime story.
— Kirkus Reviews (August 1, 2008)
“Inside all / Is a universe / Energy flowing.” So begins a journey at the outermost edge of everything. Inside the universe is a galaxy, milky and glowing, and inside the galaxy is a planet, blue and hopeful. The text moves from space to earth, from valley to village, and finally to a home where a child sleeps. Now the book takes a more metaphysical turn as it explains that “Inside your heart / Is all / Love overflowing.” The impressionistic artwork, swirling and whirling, starts out with the blues of the sky and becomes more solid once on earth, with trees, snow, and starshine falling around a brown house. Under the bedcovers, which look as much like earth and sea as blankets, a childs face peeks out; then the art becomes ethereal once more, taking the child to the top of a mountain. Attractive in look and compact and appealing in story, this brings the idea of interconnectedness to a level young children can understand. The soothing tone makes it a good bedtime choice as well.
— Booklist (October 1, 2008)
