It’s Your World Now!

Barry Falls is a multiple award winner in various artistic fields, but this stunner is his debut picture book, celebrating both the beauty of our world and the potential of every individual. It’s the kind of book that demands to be read again, immediately the final page is reached…do it! The rhythmic, rhyming text is bouncy, reminiscent of that of Dr Seuss’, and the illustrations have a great vibrancy, exploding from each page with colour and characterisation. In lesson number one, adults from around the world are seen exploring their environment, each with a small child, leading them on in an adventure like none other. ‘The world is full of wonderful things. Like cats that purr and birds that sing’. Each beauty listed is illustrated in pages packed with detail. ‘As for you, my bouncing ball, well, you can truly have it all. Yes, you can set the world alight, my child-so-small, your future’s bright. With hard work and application you can rise to any station. President or CEO, there’s nowhere that you cannot go.’  But that is not the whole picture. Having learnt what a wonderful world it is to inhabit, here comes the down side. Lesson number two shows very clearly that things will not always run smoothly. The pages become grey and forbidding, whilst there follow warnings of hazards and pitfalls to expect. Big people telling small people what to do, think, learn. Then comes an amazing light bulb moment. After such busy pages, there is a startlingly white spread, with 4 simple lines of text and an adult holding a child’s hand as he thinks: ‘Wait a second, is it true? Is that what I am doing too? Do I believe, because I’m tall, my little one, I know it all?’ And so the final summing up is amazing. Best scenario? Go in your own direction, your life is yours, discover who you are and why you are here. Just remember, love is all important. ‘So paint a picture, climb a tree. Pretend to be a bumblebee. Break a record, make a thing, scream and shout and dance and sing. Do all of this or none at all. It’s up to you! Kid, it’s your call.’ This is a most wonderful book which deserves to be in every home, and certainly in every classroom and library. Go, find it! Once read, and shared, study the cover, and see atop the tall tree, the father figure and his small child who introduce the book and also close it; see a myriad of miniature vignettes of characters, ideas and the natural world, all included within the book itself. Enjoy, and be enriched.