ALA Booklist (Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

With bright artwork and a spare, poetic text, this inviting comic for little ones takes on a truly gigantic topic: the interconnectedness of the universe. Beginning with just a cheery white dot in the chest of a simply rendered human form, the book highlights connection writ large, and the crisp white of the dot on the first page carries through the ever-expanding swell of images: clouds, raindrops, seeds, the veins of leaves, the skeleton of a bird, and twining threads of DNA all contain the same incandescent tone from the first page. Crane's bold artwork, in a neon-tinged palette, offers a range of styles, from the blocky, simplified pictures of smiling people to the strikingly diagram-like images of the musculoskeletal system of a bird and inner workings of a heart to the abstract, mandala-like figure of an atom. It's eye-catching stuff, and the tone of the text is general enough that, if the concept soars over the heads of little ones, they'll still be able to grasp the overall message, which is warm, encouraging, and hopeful.

Horn Book (Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2019)

I am one / Here in a body / Alive in a world / Made of air.

Kirkus Reviews

An early-reader meditation on interdependence.The backmatter explains that the book's concept originated with the author's wife during a July Fourth hike when she came up with the idea for an "Interdependence Day…to celebrate all the ways we are connected to one another and to the planet." This note would have been better placed as frontmatter to guide readers into and through the book's abstract meanderings. Throughout, words and pictures describe beings and their interconnectedness, but while the art is captivating in its graphic, sometimes nearly psychedelic play with color and form, meaning is elusive. The first image shows what appears to be a white celestial body surrounded by points of light. A page turn then reads, "I AM ONE," beside a picture of what now seems to be a white smiley face atop two arms. "HERE IN A BODY," reads the facing page, and that white being is now within the chest of a black body that's Haring-like in its simplicity but with eyes looking at the internal being. The text then places the being "ALIVE IN A WORLD" that is "MADE OF AIR / AND OF CLOUD / MADE OF WATER / AND OF EARTH / AND SEED," etc. The closing pages return to the two-in-one being and then show it with others, but ironically, there's ultimately failure to make words and pictures work interdependently to express the central concept of interdependence. Ambitious but weak. (Early reader. 6-8)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

This far-reaching metaphysical outing, an addition to Toon-s early reader comics series, focuses on the microscopic and the immense as well as individuality and collectivity. With abstract, psychedelic art, Crane introduces a white, moonlike orb that grows arms and emerges from the darkness after a page turn: -I am one.- The being next appears-smiling, with its arms outstretched-within the chest of a second, long-limbed figure. As the book moves along, the book shows this being as a part of an interconnected whole that comprises the planet and its fundamental materials (-made of air/ and of cloud/ made of water/ and of earth/ and seed-) until the materials become flesh (-of leaf and fruit/ and bug and bee/ and bone and meat-). As the book zooms into the biological, readers glimpse the inside of a neon pink bird-s stomach and the ventricles of a beating heart, and atoms are rendered as dramatic, kaleidoscopic forms. Finally, as the book zooms back out, long-limbed beings join the first figure, all with similar orbs that grow from their chests, connecting and pooling together: -We are all one.- This is a strange and lovely meditation on wholeness. Ages 3-up. (Sept.)

School Library Journal (Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

K-Gr 2 This latest in Toon's line of comics for young readers explores the interconnectedness of all living beings. Crane lists the elements that make up our world, starting with the planet itself and moving from the air and clouds to plants and animals and finally to the tiniest cells and atoms. The colorful, eye-popping cartoons are the highlight of the work. The use of black as an accent color on each page shows the common thread between each component. The language is poetic but accessible, with two-to-four words per page. However, while the message is beautiful, some children may find it too abstract, and adults might need to provide context. VERDICT A worthwhile purchase for libraries seeking additional beginning readers. Kathryn Justus, Renbrook School, West Hartford, CT