Member Reviews

I love counting books, and this one was especially adorable. Each page was beautifully illustrated and multiculturally representative. This would be a great way to teach children about how different cultures and families look sometimes, but how we have more in common than our differences. There are many elements to point out on each page, and this could help parents initiate important conversations with their children. I could not have loved this short and sweet book any more.

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This is such an awesome book to show kids we are all different in our own ways but still live under the same sky. This book is simple enough that my toddler loved it and it was great to show her there are people all over the world who are the same yet different in their own beautiful ways. The illustrations are gorgeous as well.

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I got this on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

I think this is a really nice picture book, with beautiful illustrations and a nice overall message. What brought it a bit down for me was that it promises to teach kids to celebrate diversity and learn about how much we have in common, and I think this is a REALLY big claim. While it does bring kids in that general direction to see more diverse people and landscapes, just seeing diverse people isn't enough to celebrate diversity. Nice addition to the short picturebooks for younger children tho.

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I received an ARC via NetGalley and although the illustrations are beautiful, the representations of other cultures are more stereotypical than accurate. I am a big fan of diverse, multicultural books, but it’s important that representation is accurate. The “Asian” child is depicted wearing a kimono to a picnic and in another scene playing ping pong. Casual activities in formal traditional clothing feels stereotypical and inaccurate.

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I have a bit of a mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, the illustrations are so beautiful, and it shows children living in different parts of the world sharing things in common like family, friendship, play, and community. However, for a book that seems to be intended as a counting book for young children, it doesn't really have the numbers "pop" on the pages. The words rhyme- and that's great, too. At the end, I feel like this book tries to do too many things at once.

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One interesting book suitable for young kids as much as older ones, to remind us all that we are all living under one big sky. No matter your skin color, your tradition or your family. We are quite similar one to another, and mostly we shared the same big sky. We faced more or less the same problem, and received same love.

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Even in today's world where the world seems to be bigger than ever, We Are All Under One Wide Sky is a beautiful reminder that we are all on the same planet and in this together. This book is sure to be a bedtime favorite with the soothing colors, rhythms, and bedtime routines depicted on the last few pages.

The book's illustrations are breathtaking, truly a work of art. The depictions of kids all over the world participating in their cultures are sure to spark conversations about how even though we are different, we are all valuable.

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We Are All Under One Wide Sky is a great example of inclusive literature. I love the rhyming, it has a good read aloud pace, and it’s great for emergent readers! In society today, it’s important that we have representation in all forms and this would be a great book to add to your child’s library.

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Thanks to SoundsTrue + NetGalley for the advance copy of "We Are All Under One Wide Sky" by Deborah Wiles, illustrated by Andrea Stegmaier.

A sweet counting book that celebrates the diversity of children who all live under one wide sky. A must-have for all libraries (home, school, and public) as no one will tire of the story's cadence, the message, or the illustrations which invite conversations.

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This is a really cute counting book with images from around the world capturing the diversity of different people, landscapes, and activities. I like how it is easy for little readers to understand that while people live in different places and that families come in different forms, we all have things like love, nature, and friendship in common. Every year I teach a unit about community and I can see this being a perfect addition to my read-alouds and/or to pair with my math group for that unit.

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This book was Short simple beautiful and well illustrated. I enjoyed the anti bias theme the book offered.

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This is a charming counting book. The author skillfully highlights images from the around the world and creates a beautiful lyrical poem capturing the diversity of people, activities, landscapes, and architecture that is found there.

The reader will begin to understand that although people live in many different places they have numerous things in common. Everyone believes that family, laughter, love, nature, and friendship are most precious to them. Although many things are certainly different about their lives the great news is that they all share the same wide sky and that is something to celebrate each and every day!

The illustrations are gorgeous. They are wonderfully detailed, full of activity and love that flow from page to page. The message is positive and "We Are All Under One Sky" promotes numeracy, literacy, social and emotional skills for that age level. This book is perfect for beginning readers and would be a wonderful asset in a classroom or elementary school library. I highly recommend this book.

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What a beautiful book! I love how it is a poem counting book that uses beautiful and simple language to count to 10 and countdown to 1.

The choice of words also helps spread the message of love, empathy, and respect. It celebrates children at their most beautiful and loving nature. Deborah Wiles managed to gift us with a book that helps children develop not only numeracy, but also literacy, social and emotional skills.

I feel that Andrea Stegmaier also did a superb job bringing diversity to the page. I LOVED how you can see people of different abilities, family structure, creed, race, language, type of residence… I am confident that the majority, if not all my students will find themselves represented on these pages.
I can’t wait to add this to my library in June.

Thank you Deborah Wiles, Sounds True and NetGalley for an advance copy of We Are All Under One Wide Sky in exchange for an honest review.

#WeAreAllUnderOneWideSky #NetGalley

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A cute counting book a with diversity. The families come in all genders, sexualities, religions and races, and it’s done casually so as people around the world which reinforces the title. A great book for your little’s library

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This beautifully diverse books highlights children in different cultures, different clothing, playing different games, living in different environments, yet in all the diversity the refrain is that we are all under one wide sky. The more differences powerfully show that really we are all the same. We all play and laugh and love. The illustrations and text show children interacting with nature, friends and family, as it counts up and down. Diversity matters! Representation Matters! We are more alike than different.

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I really like this concept that we are all the same, even if we look different, have different traditions. To make it even better, it's a counting book --that rhymes!

However, and this is the stickler in me, the repeating refrain of "under one wide sky" is a prepositional phrase, and it should not be a sentence all on its own. Let's start the kiddos off with good grammar, hmm?

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This picture book is pretty and has a nice message, but there's no story line or plot. It's a counting book whose text goes from 1 to 5 then breaks to repeat the refrain that we're "all under one wide sky" then goes up to 10, breaks for the refrain, back down to 5, breaks for the refrain, then down to end with "one wide sky." The illustrations are beautiful. Although the one for number 10 is a little confusing because it says "Ten whirligigs spinning around" and 8 of the whirligigs have spinners (like pinwheels or windmills) on them so it took a while to figure out that the whirligigs were not the spinners, but the whole contraption.

Overall, a solid, but not outstanding, read. I would purchase it for my library because of the diverse illustrations and it is a decent counting book, but I won't be using it in story time because there's no real story. 3 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

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We Are All Under One Wide Sky (Hardcover)
by Deborah Wiles
a great book for teaching counting up and down. the book uses really bright images to help children count up and down to 1-10. a great resource for text to understanding process.

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We Are All Under One Wide Sky is a very simple and greatly illustrated story showing us that were all together. I read this to my 4 year old son who had fun counting all the objects that the story mentions. The pictures were great and they seemed very inclusive. We enjoyed all the illustrations and the many different things that the children were doing. This is a great counting book for young children.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving a free copy.

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I liked how this story had certain lines that were repetitive. It had a nice flow how it counted up to 10 and then back down to 1. Cute story.

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