If You Come To Earth; Sophie Blackall

Inspired by her travels and the children that she met comes this special picture book by award-winning author, Sophie Blackall.

What would you want someone who has never visited Earth before to know about the place that we call home? What makes it worth the visit? Is it the people, the places, the animals, the food or is it something else? This is a big question to ask but one little child thinks he has has the perfect answer and knows exactly what it is important to know about our beautiful little planet…

If You Come To Earth is essentially a guide book to our own planet. Written as a letter from a child to a visitor to Earth from outer space, the child’s imagination runs wild as he writes and draws all the things he thinks the visitor needs to know. Like all good guide books, the child introduces the visitor to all manner of things including: people, places, weather, transport, work, things to do, what to eat and some of the nature to see.

Blackall explores the good and the bad of Earth. The library scene is filled with kindness - a door is held open, a book from a high shelf is passed to a small child and a librarian offers a tissue to comfort an upset man. The bad is depicted through a page of conflict as two brothers fight above a war with soldiers dying on the battlefield (this is presented in an age appropriate way) and another spread shows six patients lying sick in hospital beds. More subtle examples portray families displaced by war and natural disasters on a page all about homes, and around the dining table the text tells us, “Some of us have more food than others.”

The book is a celebration of what makes planet Earth and the people that live here so wonderful and unique. And whilst we may all be different, Blackall takes this opportunity to remind us that we are all very much a part of one big family on our own little planet and “It’s better when we help each other.” It very much reminded me of ‘Here We Are’ by Oliver Jeffers which coincidentally features in the book - a child perched in a tree is reading it.

The pages, which are beautifully illustrated, radiate warmth and the scenes are bursting with colour and things to spot. People of different ethnicities are represented and everyone who reads this book will truly feel apart of this special celebration.

A wonderful book about being kind to each other and to the planet.

Recommended for 4+.