I liked this book for a few different reasons. The first reason is because of the illustrations. The illustrations for this book were not drawn but, instead taken. The book was composed of photography that was taken around the world of children and their parents. It included places like Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Germany, Tanzania, and many more that could broaden ones view. The second thing I liked about this book was the simple and self explanatory language. "Telling a Tale or two" or " Catching a fish" are just a few of the short sentences that young readers can pick up and relate to something they might have done with their own parent. Lastly, I liked the organization of the writing. The entire book was written with short and simple sentences, not giving the reader much substance however, the last two pages of the book were an article about the world's children. This was a great addition to the book, including factual information about the world and its youth. "What kinds of world permits 38,000 children to die every day from preventable poverty-related causes?" This textual feature allows older children to be more engaged with this simple book I enjoyed. Overall, I think that the 'big idea' of this book was to not only emphasize what children and parents do together, but also to inform one about the the uprising problems, and how that unconditional love can make for a better society. ( )

To be honest, I had higher expectations for this book. From the looks of the cover and seeing that it was by National Geographic, I thought the book would have more substance. There was no plot in the book, or much information given. There were only three words per page, and all it did was explain what the people in the picture were doing, like "catching a fish." The only good thing about this book was the fact that the photographs were of real people, and filled up the entire page. It showed people of different races and cultures around the world. At the back of the book there is a smaller version of the pictures that are on each page telling the reader where the pictures were taken. Each picture was taken in a different location around the world, but the pictures and text are so tiny that it would not capture a child's attention. This book could be used to show children that all families participate in similar activities, no matter where in the world they live. ( )

I like this book for a younger age group (K-2nd grade) because of the small amount of words on each page and the bigger focus on the pictures. I think older students would not be able to stay engaged with this book because of the lower level language and vocabulary. However, there are two pages in the back of the book that describe in detail each picture as well as the setting of each picture and the culture the people in the picture are from. Therefore, this book would work for both younger and older students but I think younger students would get more out of it then the older students.
Because there are technically no "illustrations" but instead photographs done by National Geographic, the readers/viewers get to see the actual views rather than the illustrators point of view and of a story. This way, the readers/viewers get to have their own interpretations and see the similarities and differences between the photographs. Also, because there is a minimal amount of text on each page, Barbara Kerley has specific ways of formatting the text in order to keep the reader's attention. For example on one page the text reads "Seeing the SUN, a STORM, the world together, ME AND YOU". With the use of italics and bold face print, the reader is then drawn to those words and can analyze them based on the accompanying pictures.
I believe that the big idea/central message of this book is to expose children to the diversity in the world. Some students are able to tell the differences in skin color, language or clothing, but showing these images will allow the children to physically "see" the world and how different/unique everyone is.

I liked this book; it was a collection of photographs of people with their kids from all around the world. It featured all ethnicities, and many different locations.

The pictures in this book told the loose story. There wasn't much of a plot, but there were fantastic photographs of parents and children in "action shots"- always doing things and typically not even looking at the camera. The photos were of people just happily living their lives, and they were from all around the world.
This brings me to another reason I liked the book. The multitude of ethnicities featured in this book encourage the reader to consider other ethnicities as similar to their own. Furthermore, enjoying spending time with your child is one of the most human things someone can do, and this encourages the reader to consider all of these other cultures with a more compassionate mindset.

The message of this book is that it is wonderful to spend time with your child, and that all people, all around the world enjoy doing it. ( )

I liked this book for three reasons. I thought that the illustrations were really powerful. Because they were real, you could get a real sense of family and what they were doing and feeling at the specific time. My favorite photograph was the “Dancing a turn or two.” with the little girl standing on her father’s feet. I felt that because I connected with this photo, other readers could as well. Another thing I liked about this book was the writing. Every page usually ended with “me and you” and I thought that the use of this repetition was key to this book because of the meaning that it was trying to get across. A final reason I liked this book was the last couple of pages. It was because of these pages that made me go from just saying this book was okay, to really liking it. These pages allowed me to see where the families in the pictures were actually from and I liked that because I would have never guessed where some of these pictures were taken. The big message of this book is that love between parents is universal. It is shown throughout the words and mostly pictures of parents and children taken around the world. ( )