Positive messages:We are all part of the same big wide world, and it is a world filled with adventure, beauty, good days, bad days, but mostly "hope and peace and love and trust."
Positive role models:Multicultural, and multi-generational, families share the world together. They play at the beach, go to the farmers market, climb trees, get caught in the rain, warm by themselves by the fire. One grandfather pulls kids in a wagon, a father hold his baby, a mother helps her daughter up from a rollerskating mishap, friends pull a rowboat in out of the storm, and so on. The world is a cooperative, peaceful place even when everything is not working out perfectly.
A wonderful lyrical story that examines our concrete and abstract world in a poetic venn diagram of time, nature, and family. The timeless story highlights a few of life's, sometimes ironic, contrasts and finally circles back around to family and the little things that connect us with family and our greater humanity. The illustrations are outstanding and full of little details that my kids talk about every time we re-read the book. While this is not a book that my kids often pick up to read on their own, it IS one of our all time favorite books to read aloud. My kids are rapidly approaching double digit ages but our (dwindling) moments of snuggling and reading aloud at bedtime still regularly include this great book.