WONDER WORLD: EARTH

Lerwill delivers the dirt on soil’s composition and importance, as well as some of the flora, fauna, and fungi that call it home.

Burrowing into his topic—“lovely, mucky, wormy, squirmy soil!”—with contagious enthusiasm, the author loudly conveys the message that we wouldn’t exist, or at least the world wouldn’t be the same, without it. Or without its many denizens, from the mycelial networks that connect the roots of trees to the furry creatures, the microbes, and, in between, the many types of “creepy-crawlies” that burrow into it. In mostly cutaway views, Le starts off with a picture of our planet with its subterranean layers exposed, then goes on to close-ups of the swarms of living things that turn its topmost layer into “an ENORMOUS underground city where everything works together” and at last gives readers a glimpse of deep layers of tunnels and tubes beneath an actual, human city. Throughout the art, two children, one dark-skinned, one pale-skinned, act as wondering observers on the way to a final stand in which they turn to offer hands full of the “muddy, MAGICAL, MARVELOUS MIRACLE!” Whether or not they check the understandable impulse to do some mucking around of their own, young readers will come away with a heightened appreciation for the treasures lying just beneath their feet.

Digs up plenty of fascinating facts and presents them in notably effusive tones.