The Smallest Spot of a Dot

January 1, 2023

K-Gr 3-With a message celebrating our differences and our sameness, this title for young readers starts with a dot. Each dot represents a gene. Readers are told that we are all made of billions and billions of tiny gene dots. One of these billions is your special dot. It makes each person unique. "The rest of the billions of dots we discussed/ Are exactly the same inside each of us." Our uniqueness and our sameness are highlighted in a multitude of ways through the text and inviting illustrations including a diverse cast of children. The message of this text, that genetically we are 99.9 percent the same, is critical for children to know in a world that seemingly seeks to divide, categorize, and "other" people. VERDICT Useful for multiple lessons from science to social-emotional learning, this title simultaneously encourages readers to find and celebrate that which makes them unique while identifying the similarities that unite us all in a common human family.-John Scott

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2023
A rhymed celebration of human individuality within our genetic commonality. In simple language, media personality Davis and Tyler (The Skin You Live In, 2005) highlight twin notions, one biophysical, the other more conceptual: We all share "billions and billions of tiny gene-dots," but there is just one dot each that makes us who we are--"Your me-my-mine dot is the who that is 'You.' It's what gives us a hint and a colorful clue / About why you look the way that you do, and why your dot has your only-you hue." Because that unique dot, the authors go on to claim, governs not only skin color, but facial features, eye color, food preferences, and behavioral tendencies, it actually represents not a single gene but entire chromosomal constellations and even perhaps some epigenetic influences. Still, if this leaves some confusion in its wake that will need later instruction to clear up, the point that for all our "different faces and bodies and names" we are "still 99.9% the same" is a good one to make early and often. Fleming sweetens the presentation even more with a thoroughly diverse cast of, mostly, romping, dancing, and playing children (some of whom use wheelchairs) with outsized heads and big, widely set eyes. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Fuzzy on biological specifics but sings a buoyant message about how they make us the same for all our differences. (Informational picture book. 5-8)

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