Book excerpt: Kids learn the importance of connecting with others, with nature, and with themselves in this journey from the minuscule to the massive. Bringing together the worlds of social and emotional learning (SEL) and STEM, this calming and colorful picture book illustrates how we are all connected. By taking the reader on a journey from the minuscule (cells, the building blocks of nature) to the massive (a universe that is infinite), Me and You and the Universe teaches children about the importance of connecting with others, with nature, and with themselves. The message of universality and connectedness helps foster an appreciation for nature and our world’s ecology. Author and illustrator Bernardo Marçolla beautifully articulates the value of learning at an early age to look up to the sky and, as we see the stars, to know that we are part of them. The world will remain the same, but if we open our eyes and our hearts, our experience will be completely different. “Although we seem different from each other, all of us, deep down inside, are very similar.” Also available by Bernardo Marçolla: All You Can Imagine, a book about the power of imagination “This is the kind of book that opens your heart a little wider to help you love just a little bit more. Share it with every kid you know.”—Jill Twiss, author of A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo and senior writer at Last Week Tonight with John Oliver