Our Home: Our Earth

Below I describe a brand-new book by one of my favorite picture book authors! This book will have your audience thinking seriously and expansively about Earth, our Dot - the home we all share.

Picture Book: Here: The Dot We Call Home

Author: Laura Alary

Illustrator: Cathrin Peterslund

Summary: This beautiful book offers a wise young girl's wide view of home, time, and space. Beginning in her bedroom and moving outwardly, she draws a line between her house now and before she lived there. She explains that others who lived there left behind things: good things (a tree swing, a secret hedge) and some unwanted things (junk). Wisely she offers the same thought exercise to her city and then our Earth. She invites the reader to go back (turn the page) and see how her city has changed. Historical elements are shown.

Then the illustrator shows the ugliness in some places because other things were left behind.

Our intelligent tour guide ends this thought exercise with a far view of our globe; Dot can look very small from space. She lovingly wishes she could care for all of Earth for the people who are to come after her. "But it is too big. And I am so small." So she engages in a beautiful practice! When feeling overwhelmed by the issues of our globe, she says to herself, “But I can love this... and this."

Mindful moments and small acts of creation care serve to boost her hope about the resilience of our home and its inhabitants. 

Hanna’s Comments: Alary & Peterslund offer a remarkable construction of the breadth of the subject of home and the details that give it beauty and meaning. Through a thoughtful imaginary journey to the past and consideration for the future, the narrator models how to sense a calling for the present! The clarity & detail of the illustrations tell stories beyond the words so be sure to spend some time exploring those images. This keen-eyed girl invites all to gaze gratefully. She may be small and the subject of her worries big, but her vision and agency are expansive. Let her encourage your own children to care for our Dot so that we don't leave so much ugliness behind.

  

Below I have links to other Alary books featured here at PBT, including a Guest Author post - my first! Why do I like her books so much? Like in this book, Alary offers a clever slant on Truth, Faith, and Holy Love. For those of you doing family ministry, you'll want to explore her Bible for tweens & teens and her liturgical resource books which are full of clever ideas for making church seasons meaningful! All her creations can be found HERE

Original Publisher: Paraclete Press, 2022

Age Appropriateness: Age 3 and up

Formats other than Book: Tablet & Audiobook

Scripture Connections: There are so many scriptures about home and our Earth, particularly land! Here are a few: 

The creation narratives (Genesis 1 & 2)

The Israelites longing for home while exiled in Babylon (Psalm 137)

For you shall not pollute the land... (Numbers 35:33)

I lift my eyes to the hills... (Psalm 121:1)

The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish woman tears hers down. (Proverbs 14:1)

The Earth is polluted by its inhabitant... (Isaiah 24:5)

… if anything is excellent and praiseworthy, think on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

PBT Applications: Read this book to a group of children in your church who are about to engage in some creation care or environmental justice activities. It will motivate them and give them a wider sense of purpose and "grounded" joy! Have them offer contrasting gratitudes to God: 

    something small then something big

    something personal then something shared by all

    something natural then something human-made

    something microscopic then something in outerspace

Links to Laura Alary here at PBT: 

Guest Author Post

How Do I Pray for Grandpa?

Mira and the Big Story