Description
Book SynopsisNewbery Medalist Lynne Rae Perkins invites readers on an imagination-fueled journey through the living museum that surrounds us all. A transcendent and timely picture book, The Museum of Everything encourages young readers to wonder, dream, and explore—and to learn more about the world around them.
Trade Review“Perkins’s great gifts for observation and connections are on display here as her narrator . . . serves as curator and tour guide for several ‘museum exhibits’ of concrete objects and abstract phenomena. . . . A small, idiosyncratic catalog of possibilities and a lens for seeing parts of the world in relation to one another. . . . There is plenty of room for readers to think about and celebrate their own ways of seeing, collecting, and cataloging the world—and to celebrate an endless variety of possible museum exhibits around them. Poetic, intriguing, and charming.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “There are many fascinating museums in the world, but expand your definition of what you might hope to see in a single building and enter the Museum of Everything. . . . Gloriously inventive illustrations reflect the child’s rich inner thoughts. . . . A marvel of creativity . . . Whatever causes you to pause, appreciate, contemplate, and enjoy—that’s what belongs in your own Museum of Everything.” — Booklist (starred review) “An enticing spur to scientific philosophy and creative contemplation that echoes children’s openness of thought, using accessible and specific detail that likely overlaps with youngsters’ own metaphysical inquiries. . . . Perkins’s familiar easygoing, grainy figures and landscapes set off the prominent museum items with a contrast that suits the textual concepts but never loses visual cohesion. . . . This will be a next step for youngsters whose imaginations have been tickled by Portis’s Now, Underwood’s Outside In, or just their own musings.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review) “[Perkins] elevates the ordinary—again—in this story about objects we simply do not really see: a fallen leaf, a cloud, a flower. . . Gives readers a sense that the microscopic and the telescoped can live side by side, or within one another. . . . Perkins connects with readers who daydream, validating that act as a way to see the world and learn of its many interlocking pieces, and makes imaginative mental musings into a story, and an artform. Pure fun.” — School Library Journal (starred review) “In this big, noisy world, a museum, even if it’s only in one’s imagination, is a place of quiet contemplation. With this absorbing and original picture book, Perkins offers a special sanctuary for curious and creative dreamers, a space to think about, explore, and possibly curate a few collections of their own. . . . A perfect lead-in to a museum visit or a STEAM-based contemplation titled the ‘Museum of Things I Wonder About.’” — Horn Book (starred review) “Considering objects one by one and putting them 'in a quiet place' is also what museums do, a resemblance that the child notices . . . Ideas are developed with particular richness . . . Distinctive and heartfelt, the museum is observed with a poet’s eye and an inventor’s spirit.” — Publishers Weekly
