AllOfUs

ALL OF US

In a nutshell: The world is a community made up of people who are more similar than we are different.

The world is rich with people and places of distinct and complex cultures. And yet, even with its rich diversity, it’s easy to see that the world is one community of people who are similar in so many ways. With stunning, lush art to accompany the lyrical text, this book celebrates the connections we can make to appreciate and share our world.

Reviews:

Starred Review: "Love is the core of the voyage ... The breathtaking art carries the message throughout."
Excerpt from Booklist

Starred Review: "This simple yet beautiful book reminds readers that they are not alone ... the book shows how differences need not be divisive, and that commonalities are everywhere."
School Library Journal

"This celebration of global interconnectedness and acceptance of racial, religious, and other differences is a much-needed affirmation of a community that welcomes all with open arms."
Excerpt from Horn Book

"Erskine's spare text, relayed in a collective first person narration, describes how people from all walks of life can come together....this picture book offers an uplifting vision for a unified world."
Excerpt from Publishers Weekly

"The text also describes ways they (and we all) can contribute to the world in which we live: “Some build things up, some create art / Some help the earth, some heal the heart.”
Excerpt from Kirkus

Fun Facts About ALL OF US

Thanks to Bank Street College for including ALL OF US in its list of Best Books of 2022!

ALL OF US is an Editor's Pick on Amazon! (Best Books for Ages 3-5!)

A Kids Book A Day blog recommends a marvelous selection of books, and I'm grateful ALL OF US is on their list!

Thanks to my alma mater's William & Mary Alumni Magazine for highlighting ALL OF US and LILY'S PROMISE!

I love that ALL OF US is featured at ALL SHE WROTE, "an intersectional, inclusive feminist and queer bookstore that supports, celebrates, and amplifies underrepresented voices through our thoughtfully curated selection of books spanning across all genres." Thank you, ALL SHE WROTE!!

Is this not the most adorable photo of two kiddos reading ALL OF US? This is why we write.

May 3, 2021
This little bird always makes me smile. It takes me back to Edinburgh, Scotland as a kid, where Puffins were the first novels I bought with my own pocket money—before Puffin was even a Penguin imprint in the U.S. On rare occasions, I was even allowed to walk up to Princes Street myself and march into a bookstore or other shop that sold books, like John Menzies (pronounced Ming-ess), where I sucked in the new book smell and poured out my coins at the register. I didn’t need any positive reinforcement to read but it still felt good to hear adults whispering after me, “Och, she’s a clever one, that wee titch.” Or I’d run down Circus Place, across the Waters of Leith and into the second hand shops in Stockbridge, where my coins went further, though the books didn’t have the tell-tale fresh scent or make that spinal crack revealing that you were the first one to open this particular treasure.

I started with E. Nesbitt (Five Children and It) and every Enid Blyton book I could get my hands on, to my mother’s chagrin. “It’s the same formula,” she said, “Children go off on an adventure by themselves and come home again.” My response: “Exactly!” I moved on to Arthur Ransome (more children going on adventures by themselves) and, as I left junior school, Richard Adams’s Watership Down. In those days, there wasn’t much of a “young adult” genre so I quickly moved up to Penguins with Nevil Shute and Agatha Christie, which were all over our bookshelves at home.

I’m grateful Penguin has been around for as long a I can remember, that I had such great access to books, and that I was given the freedom to read whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted (except for the occasional, “Turn that light off and go to sleep!”). I never dreamed I’d be an author one day, that I’d have that little bird on something I wrote myself. Hopefully, there’s another wee titch out there who’s enjoying these Penguin books as much as I did.

Thank you and hugs to Alexandra Boiger for her breathtaking illustrations in All of Us, to Jill Santopolo, Talia Benamy, and the whole Philomel/Penguin team for publishing this book, and to my agent, Linda Pratt, for patiently shepherding me, and my manuscripts, through the publishing process. I hope you enjoy All of Us, and that you have a chance to share it with your favorite wee titch.

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