One Day a Dot: The Story of You, the Universe, and Everything
Written by Ian Lendler, illustrated by Shelli Paroline and Braden Lamb
First Second, $17.99
Ages 4-8

Almost no subject is too much for a children’s storybook, with the right approach, and One Day a Dot is proof. It tackles the formation of the universe in simple, understandable terms, with lovely images following from the Big Bang through the evolution of humanity and civilization.

A dot bursts into light and life. It’s given feelings by the author, which brings the subject from a galactic to a more personal scale. Following pages flow from protozoa to sea life to evolution into dinosaurs. It’s amazing how much was put into these forty pages, when one thinks of the billions of years portrayed.

The design elements, in muted colors of orange, teal, and mustard, give the pages a mid-century modern look that creates an air of being outside of time well-suited to the content. The attractiveness of the art and the simple poetry of the text prevent re-reads from becoming boring. A timeline at the end covers key eras and epochs in the history of the earth.

One Day a Dot is a captivating way to respond to a child’s question of “where did it all come from?”