Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life

“Listen to me. Do this one thing.” That's the sun speaking, urging viewers to attend to their own heartbeat and to know that they are “living sunlight” in this iconographic-animated adaptation of Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm's 2009 children's picture book (a Parents' Choice Award winner), which is informative and beautiful. Living Sunlight features the voice of “your golden star” as it explains photosynthesis—how life is made through sunlight, air, and water, which plants turn into sugars that feed life on Earth. The explanation is presented with disarming simplicity, clear enough for children as young as four years old. Bang's striking images, which use golden swirls of dots to represent sunlight within and around all living forms, also present people and animals from around the globe in glowing, vivid colors and textures. DVD extras include a joint interview with Bang, a Caldecott Award–winning writer and illustrator, and Chisholm, a scientist and professor at MIT. Highly recommended. Aud: K, E, P. (G.A. DeCandido)