Jacqueline Woodson’s 2022 picture book The World Belonged to Us is a nostalgic celebration of childhood–childhood the way it used to be, especially in an urban environment. Woodson is Black, and some of the specific details are unique to the Black experience, like straightening hair for school or the freedom of natural curls. Most of this, though, is more universal; it is a fun love letter to childhood experienced as and by a community of kids, in a time when kids played together in neighborhoods that knew them. It focuses on the positives of that time, and at times seems to look right past some of the negatives, but it does a good job of making the positives feel very real.
Leo Espinosa’s illustrations are simple, colorful, and welcoming: they fit the tone of the book perfectly.
