One and Everything by Sam Winston
Published by Candlewick Studio on November 1, 2022
ISBN: 153621566X
Pages: 48
Genres: Arts
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Goodreads

One & Everything is the story about the importance of preserving languages and how languages are subsumed and lost, when dominant cultures don’t make room for other cultures and their stories. This singular picture book uses typography and thoughtful discourse to tell a story that will captivate its audience, as it delivers the message that everyone’s story (not just yours!) has value. Winston’s deceptively simple illustrations – imperfect watercolor circles filled with scripts of languages, living and historic – capture the message powerfully.

The backmatter is rich with graphic representations of the scripts (how a language looks written down) starts with an author’s note discussing living languages and the rapid pace of language loss, in part due to globalization. According to Winston, “it’s believed that more than half of the world’s population speaks one of only twenty-three languages from the thousands in existence.”

Reviewed by Deanna Contrino, Young School Library, Saco