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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

In a companion to Your Place in the Universe, which explores objects vast in size, Chin sheds a light on the opposite end of the spectrum: the microscopic building blocks of human bodies. The narrative begins with a Calliope hummingbird, the smallest bird in the United States, as it alights on the finger of a brown child who uses a wheelchair. As diminutive as the bird is, it is not as small as the smallest butterfly, which in turn is not as small as the smallest bee. Smaller still are humans’ finest hairs, called vellus hairs. And smaller yet are skin cells and their nuclei, which are comprised of even smaller particles, each of which have their own microscopic parts. The size of the objects in the narrative shrinks until it reaches elementary particles, or quarks and gluons, which are so small humans are unable to measure or divide them. Tiny though they may be, however, elementary particles are the building blocks of everything in the universe, including “the body of a unique human being … a singular person who can think and feel and discover.” On each page, detailed, labeled illustrations provide additional information about the mind-boggling particles mentioned in the primary narrative.  (Ages 8-11)

CCBC Choices 2023 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2023. Used with permission.

From Horn Book

Starred review from January 1, 2023
Chin follows his acclaimed Your Place in the Universe (rev. 11/20) with an equally stellar exploration of the tiniest components of matter conceptualized by science. The book opens with a brown-skinned child who uses a wheelchair visiting a Southwestern desert. The United States' smallest bird, butterfly, and bee, in turn, alight on her finger, in close-ups that ultimately zoom in to a hair on that finger and put in motion a journey inward to the "building blocks" of biology and physical science. The expedition moves from skin cells to molecules, then to atoms, protons, and elementary particles. Each page-turn, ending in suspenseful sentence breaks ("But the cell nucleus is gigantic compared to... / ...everything else inside the cell"), takes readers to the next step inward. Chin's stunning watercolor and gouache illustrations, colorfully detailed and scientifically accurate, employ perspective to draw readers into observations of life and matter within the smallest possible spaces. The back matter adds details to the text's brief definitions and delineates where the art departs from settled science (in color and spatial relationships). The main text ends philosophically: we are all made of "the same stuff as everything else in the universe," and yet each of us is a "singular person, who can think and feel and discover... / ...the universe within." Danielle J. Ford

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From School Library Journal

Starred review from October 1, 2022

K-Gr 4-The book opens on Calliope hummingbird, "the smallest bird in the United States. At just 8 centimeters long from beak tip to tail, these tiny birds are small enough to fit" in a child's hand, and the brown-skinned girl is using an all-terrain wheelchair while the rest of the people in the Southwestern desert setting of the United States gather around a guide near a large saguaro cactus. Smaller still, though, is a Western Pygmy Blue butterfly, smaller than a penny, but even that is not as small as the smallest bee. Step by step, centimeter by centimeter, Chin scales down the point of view until readers are staring into the human vellus hair, the bacteria beneath it, skin cells, molecules, protons, and further, to elementary particles, the smallest building blocks known to us at this time. Like a high-speed camera, the narrative then backs away, as these blocks build landscapes, the beasts of the plains, and the universe, arranged just so for every living thing and structure, including the titular "you." There is a moment in the book when it feels as if Chin has, through science alone, reverse-engineered Genesis itself. But whether in the writing or page after page of cascading spreads drawing the eye in, science and poetry create a flawless blend of information, delivered with grace and confidence. Notes on the writing and illustration help children divine fact from guidance and learning aids (such as using color on elements that are essentially colorless); back matter includes a table of elements, selected sources, and a spread called "The Building Blocks of Life." VERDICT This book is a proper revelation, putting the "you" in universe and giving children a way to grasp the infinity of the world and every particle of the planet. Exquisite.-Kimberly Olson Fakih

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Publisher's Weekly

Starred review from September 26, 2022
In this companion to Your Place in the Universe, Chin zooms way, way in, examining progressively smaller materials until reaching the smallest known to humans. An opening page pictures a child with light brown skin who uses a wheelchair, shown near a school group in a desert park. The child sees something that the others miss, kicking off a litany of scientific facts-"The Calliope Hummingbird is the smallest bird in the United States"-then spots even smaller beings: the most diminutive butterfly, and the tiniest bee. Linked comparisons continue into the human body, drilling down to cells ("like tiny water balloons," reads handily comparative text), molecules, atoms, and elementary particles, all explained clearly and portrayed with dazzling precision. Ending lines weave scientific revelation into a message of profound inspiration, the opening child's deep, thoughtful gaze accompanying the conceit: "You are made of the same stuff as everything else in the universe... a singular person, who can think and feel and discover... the universe within." Ample back matter provides background material about elements, cells, DNA, and more. Ages 8—12.

From Booklist

Starred review from September 1, 2022
Grades 3-6 *Starred Review* In this complement to Your Place in the Universe (2020), Chin once again explores the concepts of size and scale. Instead of looking outward to the vastness of outer space, however, the Caldecott medalist turns inward toward the building blocks of matter and life. Returning to the Southwest, he sets the informational picture book in the Sonoran Desert, where a ranger is leading a group of elementary-school children. A girl using a wheelchair gets distracted by a calliope hummingbird, the smallest bird in the U.S., which lands on the girl's hand. This begins a progression of incrementally smaller scales, for the bird is still not as small as the smallest butterfly, the western pygmy blue. The insects, in turn, are still not as small as the smallest hairs on our body. From here, the scale continues down inside the human body, from cells and their structure to DNA and, ultimately, atoms and their parts. Giving the biggest impact to these tiniest bits are full-page watercolor-and-gouache illustrations in fine detail, with an illustrator's note explaining methods for depicting and coloring particles too miniscule for humans to visualize. Chin concludes by bringing the book full circle, explaining how we are made of the same stuff as the universe and returning readers, in stunning visuals, to the desert as seen through the girl's eyes.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Kirkus

Starred review from July 1, 2022
The author of the cosmic Your Place in the Universe (2020) takes a similarly expansive thought journey in the opposite direction. Once again Chin goes in scale-changing stages. The 8-centimeter-long Calliope hummingbird that lights on the finger of a delighted brown-skinned child who uses a wheelchair seems tiny. It's a giant, though, next to the Western Pygmy Blue butterfly (smaller than a penny), which towers over a less than 2-millimeter-long bee...which lands next to a vellus hair, less than 30 microns across, on the child's skin, and so on down to and into cells, past DNA and its constituent molecules to quarks and gluons--which, Chin writes with some understatement, "aren't like any objects we are familiar with." But, he concludes, those same elementary particles make up all the physical matter in the universe, from galaxies to hummingbirds to humans. Particularly in the microbial realms but really throughout, the art's evocative detailing and dynamic compositions create vivid impressions of realism and movement that will carry viewers down to the point where size and location lose their meanings and then back around to the wide-eyed young observer. Retracing part of his route in the backmatter, the author enriches a summary discussion of life's building blocks with a chart of elementary particles and the periodic table of elements. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Another fantastic voyage from an accomplished author/illustrator, creatively presented. (note, selected sources) (Informational picture book. 8-10)

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.