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One Grain of Sand: A Lullaby    by Pete Seeger & Linda Wingerter Amazon.com order for
One Grain of Sand
by Pete Seeger
Order:  USA  Can
Little, Brown & Co., 2003 (2003)
Hardcover
* * *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

Linda Wingerter's luminous paintings accompany the words of Pete Seeger's gentle lullaby (made up for his baby daughter in 1956), One Grain of Sand, in this appealing picture book. It's introduced with music for the song and the songwriter's self-deprecating comment that some of his most successful singing has been 'when one hundred percent of my audience has gone sound to sleep on me.'

The song's verses continue with evocative evening and morning scenes from all over the world (including Thailand, Scandinavia, Africa, India, and New York city) with continuity between the first evening picture and the final two nighttime and bedtime scenes. My favorite shows a girl examining a snowflake - 'One grain of sand, / One little snowflake lost in the swirling storm, / One grain of sand, / I'll hold you close to keep you warm.' - but they're all enchanting.

It's a beautiful song and a lovely book, offering bedtime comfort with the notion that we're all part of, and connected to, a bigger world ... 'One grain of sand, / One little you, one little me.'

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