He's Got the Whole World in His Hands

Taken from the wonderful spiritual song learned by so many of us when we were young, Nelson accompanies the words with beautiful images. This illustrator never disappoints. His talent is incredible and manifested in this book in a supreme way. Highlighting the diversity of our world, Nelson reinforces the multicultural universe we should embrace.

Coming away after reading I remembered learning this song when I was attending Sunday School, most likely aged six or seven. It was such a treat to have the spiritual come alive and the images felt like they jumped right off the page and into a beautiful field of wonderful diversity.

Highly recommended.

Encouraged by the song, He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands expresses how the Lord has the Earth “in His hands” and each person as well. The book reminds us of nature’s beauty with its references to oceans, mountains and clouds. With simple straightforward writing and eye-catching paintings, this book is perfect for young readers as they will be able to follow along. The pictures also provide synergy and will help emergent readers. Children will enjoy this book as they can sing along with it.

In my opinion, this was a great, interactive text. Kadir Nelson does a great job of incorporating music and a popular native song into his novel while also expressing means of multiculturalism. His illustrations span across both pages and are very vivid and colorful. The language follows after the popular song we all know and is clear and convoluted, when read. The text is large enough for easy reading. The characters are all of different color, which make this book a great read for all. There is no point of view in the book because it is a sing along with pictures. However, the illustrations do a great job of telling a story based on the lyrics that correspond to that page. This book pushes readers to think about the importance of our show more world and the different people that live in it. As well as the pictures and the text, there is an interactive sing along placed in the back of the book, which allows kids to take the book home and sing to their family. It also allows them to recognize repeating patterns such as "He's got the whole world in his hands." Recognizing these patterns can help decode harder words and work on fluency skills. Something so vital in their early years of development. Overall, this piece of literature focuses on the importance of multiculturalism and touches on sing along and interactive role play. show less

This is a wonderfully illustrated take on the spiritual classic song, with city, school and community scenes reflecting a vibrant multicultural community.

This book is inspired by the folk song "He's got the whole world in his hands". Kadir Nelson puts this world known song to beautiful illustrations. Although the illustrations are magnificent and this book could be enjoyed by simply looking at the pictures, the story line will not keep readers attention, and this book would be enjoyed by listeners only once.

The text is what began as a spiritual has developed into one of America’s best-known songs. The illustrations reflect diversity and a child's perspective of the world. This is a great book to read during early childhood worship.

They took the song, he's got the whole world in his hands and made it into a book with great pictures. One problem I could see about reading this book out loud to a class room at a public school would be, what if they start talking about God. Saying that he has everything in his hands including the whole world. This is the message the book is trying to get at. Saying that God has the whole world in his hands.