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Summary
Summary
One Day a Dot explores the age-old question: Where did we come from? Where did everything come from?
Starting with one tiny dot and continuing through the Big Bang to the rise of human societies, the story of our universe is told in simple and vivid terms. But the biggest question of all cannot be answered: Where did that one dot come from?
One Day a Dot is a beautiful and vibrant picture book that uses the visual motif of circles as to guide young readers through the stages of life on Earth.
Author Notes
Ian Lendler is the author of the acclaimed Stratford Zoo graphic novel series and the picture books Undone Fairy Tale , Saturday , and One Day a Dot. He is at one with the universe, but only when eating pizza. He lives near San Francisco, California.
Braden Lamb grew up in Seattle, studied film in upstate New York, learned about Vikings in Iceland and Norway, and began an art career in Massachusetts. Now he draws and colors comics, and wouldn't have it any other way.
Shelli Paroline escaped early on into the world of comics, cartoons, and science fiction. She has returned to the Boston area, where she is an illustrator and co-director of the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Lendler (Saturday) tells a creation story based on evolutionary biology, using the "dot" of the title to refer both to things in the sky ("One of these new dots-the third one from the sun-was a very special shade of blue") and to microscopic organisms ("The green dot was lonely"). In a style evocative of a documentary film, Paroline and Lamb's silkscreenlike artwork in quiet earth tones portrays the progression of creatures from simple to complex. When Lendler gets to dinosaurs ("land-fish"), catastrophe strikes: "Then one day a dot fell out of the sky.... The explosion turned the whole sky red." All the land-fish disappear, but mammals flourish, giving way to humans, who boast something new-"a big brain." Fur-clad hunters evolve into a contemporary biracial couple celebrating the birth of their child: "They had families. They had you." Lendler ends with a final puzzle: "There was one question that they could not answer... Where did that first dot come from?" Spirited debates are sure to follow. Ages 4-8. Agent: Tanya McKinnon, McKinnon McIntyre. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
The books tagline (the story of you, the universe, and everything) aptly captures the all-encompassing scope of this ambitious, whirlwind tour of the Big Bang, the formation of the solar system, and the origins and evolution of life on Earth. Although the timeline unfolds unevenly, compressing billions of years of astronomical history and elongating periods of evolution concerning mammals and humans, the story touches on important basic science in accessible and discussion-provoking ways. The metaphorical dot provides a touchpoint as the narrative jumps around, standing in for subatomic particles, unicellular organisms, a wayward asteroid, and Earth itself. Comics-style illustrations in subdued earth tones, including full pages and panel sequences, depict a wide variety of organisms and landscapes and extend the dot concept. The book ends on a fundamental question of existence for science and noncience alike. The illustrations show a child holding a crayon, and the text asks: Where did that first dot come from? A timeline appears on the back endpapers. danielle j. ford (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Here is a graphic novel for younger readers that encompasses nothing less than everything from the birth of the universe to the formation of the planets, early evolution, and all of human history. It might seem rather audacious were the images and narrative not so beautifully and lyrically married to an experience that not only informs but, in parts, proves unexpectedly touching. This is the tale of a dot that explodes, forming other dots, and one of those dots and the living dots that inhabit it, as they survive, grow, learn, build, and thrive. Finally, the story poignantly winds its way back around to that first dot and, with it, the underlying question of all existence. Embracing heady subject matter and not flinching from Darwinian struggle, the wise and tender telling, the sharp and imaginative design, and the warm and gracefully curving art render it all as a captivating visual poem. It's rare (if not unique) to see subject matter like this offered to this age group, but One Day a Dot is a gentle invitation into a much wider and deeper universe that will prove wonderfully satisfying even as it sparks an infinite array of questions about the nature of humanity itself.--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2018 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-With playful words and dynamic -illustrations, this book explores more than 13 billion years. Simple language introduces key geological and biological events, often with gentle personification. The big bang is covered in three pages: "One day a dot appeared. And it was so excited to be there that it burst." Descriptions continue in that simplified vein: the first bacteria is a lonely green dot that "started a family," for instance, and the first mammal is "a little fur thing." Occasional repetition aids with continuity and reinforces concepts. The result is an engaging story that young readers will easily comprehend. The pencil-and-ink illustrations, colored digitally, have a retro feel and provide humorous but useful visual presentations. One spread portrays four dismayed prehistoric creatures watching "a big dot" (asteroid) that's about to hit "the blue dot" (Earth); the facing page depicts an array of fossils, plus one surviving mammal below. A time line at the end includes date ranges, brief descriptions, and spot illustrations for visual reference. It also corrects the misleading statement from the main text that just "one thing survived" the K-T -Extinction Event. VERDICT An accessible, appealing introduction to the planet's -history and a solid companion to Tom -Sullivan's I Used To Be a Fish.-Steven Engelfried, -Wilsonville Public Library, OR © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
For preschoolers, an introduction to ideas referencing the Big Bang, evolution, and more.The simple text is laid out over digital drawings that are filled in with blocks of muted col they depict sweet-faced critters and racially diverse humans against backdrops that take readers from the beginning to modern times. The first text page shows a round, black dot with faint swirls of blue surrounding it: "One day a dot appeared." The dot bursts because "it was so excited to be there." More dots arrive and coalesce with the first, light enters the scene, and the blue planet appears, third from the sun. Dots become shapes that play games; these games change from "Catch the Light" to "Eat or Be Eaten"; fish move to l dinosaurs appear; a comet wipes out the dinosaurs; a small, furry creature survives and generates an evolving line of mammals; primates that look like chimpanzees become peop people keep getting smarter as they teach and learn; a modern family shows up on the scene cradling "you" (depicted as a mixed-race child with a brown-skinned dad and pale-skinned mom). Whew! The use of the word "dot" for several different objects--primordial matter, planets, a comet, etc.--cleverly provides continuity, as does the recurring refrain in which each creature does "whatever it needed to stay alive." However, the oversimplification of ideas creates an underlying implication that animals are the only living things and that humans are superior beings; there is no hint of ecological interdependence.Sugarcoated nursery didactics. (timeline) (Informational picture book. 3-6)
