Welcome to Your World

by Smriti Prasadam-Halls, Jaime Kim (Illustrator)

Overview

Traverse the animal kingdom for a gorgeous celebration of the joys of a new baby — and the pleasure of introducing that baby to the wide world — in the perfect gift for new parents.

Welcome, little baby,
round your mama curled.
Welcome, little baby.
Welcome to your world.

With lyrical language and stunning illustrations, Welcome to Your World takes readers from ice-capped mountains to the depths of the sea. Tender scenes between animals and their babies encourage families to join in the loving bond that connects them to one another and to the wonders of our planet. This beautiful book is ideal for sharing with new babies, new parents, and children just venturing out in the world, as best-selling author Smriti Prasadam-Halls and acclaimed illustrator Jaime Kim provide both a celebration of nature and a gentle reminder to protect it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536206227
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	03/10/2020
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	537,474
Product dimensions:	10.00(w) x 10.50(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	2 - 5 Years

About the Author

Smriti Prasadam-Halls is an award-winning, internationally best-selling children’s author whose books have been published in more than thirty languages. Her titles include the Publishers Weekly #1 bestseller I Love You Night and Day, illustrated by Alison Brown. Smriti Prasadam-Halls previously worked at the BBC and in children’s publishing and television as a writer and editor for twelve years. She lives in London with her husband and three sons.

Jaime (Jimyung) Kim was born and raised in Korea before moving to the United States at the age of eighteen. She is the illustrator of many picture books, including La La La: A Story of Hope by Kate DiCamillo, And Then Comes Summer by Tom Brenner, and Around the Table That Grandad Built by Melanie Heuiser Hill. Jaime Kim lives in North Carolina.

Editorial Reviews

Watercolor illustrations use bold, earthy tones, and there is a sense of movement in each scene.Ultimately, the sentimentality plucks at the heartstrings of new parents...Solely for new parents who want to ruminate on bringing a new life into the world.
—School Library Journal

From the Publisher

03/01/2020

Baby-Toddler—A saccharine introduction to the natural world for babies and new parents. A mother cuddles her newborn on a picnic blanket under a shady tree. "Welcome to your world," she says. Subsequent spreads show animal parent-child pairs in lushly illustrated natural habitats: cheetahs on the plains, deer in the meadow, polar bears under the northern lights. The text invites the infant to "Look out to the forests…. Can you see the butterflies?" The book's aim, revealed in the final spreads, is to instill awareness of the preservation of the natural world. The world "loves you through and through…. Will you love it too?" Watercolor illustrations use bold, earthy tones, and there is a sense of movement in each scene. Waves crashing on jagged rocks, water spraying, and butterflies fluttering make these images worth pouring over. However, the opulent scenery and variety of animal life are too complex for infants and children under one year, and older toddlers will chafe at being addressed as "baby." Ultimately, the sentimentality plucks at the heartstrings of new parents and makes no attempt to move in any other direction. VERDICT Solely for new parents who want to ruminate on bringing a new life into the world. Optional at best.—Richelle Rose, Kenton County Public Library, KY

School Library Journal

2019-11-10
Prasadam-Halls and Kim celebrate new life with a rose-colored perspective.

The story opens with a double-page spread of a black-haired, brown-skinned mother cuddling a brown-skinned baby in a sunlit meadow replete with tree blossoms and flowers and rhyming text: "Welcome, little baby. / Welcome to your world." The subsequent double-page spreads are done in the same lush style and show mama and baby animals with gentle smiles, cavorting in their golden-hued perfect habitats as the rhyming text (in second person, "Look up to the sky. Can you see the sun?") extols the harmonious beauty of the world to readers. The narrative leans purple in its effusion, blithely ignoring strife, not to mention the food chain: "Listen to the creatures of the air and land and sea / living whole and happily, living wild and free." The illustrations, while delightfully colorful, match, with their depiction of environmental perfection, the determinedly rosy tone of the text. It's a nice concept, this welcoming new life to the world, but the whole story has an anthropocentric feel to it—beginning with the book's title—as if this Disney-perfect natural world of harmony and health that "loves you through and through" is there only for the human child's pleasure—an out-of-date idea, to say the least. In conclusion, the story asks readers, referring to "your world," "will you love it too?" A vague nudge to stewardship? It's unclear.

Relentless. (Picture book. 2-5)

Kirkus Reviews

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