![]() The challenges never seem to get in the way, and the soothing stanzas echo almost like a secular prayer. It’s as accessible as can be (“Everything you hear, smell, see / All the world is everything / Everything is you and me”) while offering stealth challenges to small readers: “Tree, trunk, branch, crown / Climbing up and sitting down.” The crown in this case is not golden, jeweled and worn on the head, it’s leafy and green. Scanlon’s celebratory verse does double duty. Beautifully illustrated by Marla Frazee, who won a Caldecott Honor this year for “A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever,” it’s the kind of book that will be pulled off the shelf at bedtime over and over again. The verses take readers from an unexplored beach to a busy music-filled family room and into a tranquil, moonlit night. ![]() “All the World,” her second book, weaves a sumptuous and openhearted poem of 18 couplets over 38 pages, all revolving around the title’s singsong refrain. ![]() “They chose to do it in a rhyme scheme, which is something that very few people can do well,” a children’s book editor observed on the show. One team rewrote “Hansel and Gretel” with disastrous results (losing to “Jack and the Beanstalk”). When Martha Stewart was the host of an “Apprentice” spinoff a few years ago, she challenged her contestants during one episode with writing a children’s book. ![]()
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