The story was straightforward enough about elephants, friendship, and perseverance, but the art was wildly inconsistent. Some pages looked like very good paintings of elephants but others were just muddled messes and very off putting.

The lifetime journey of two elephants is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Following the lives of Adia and Lotus, two female elephants who meet at a young age, they journey far and away from each other and from their home. Each new home is different from what they've ever known and with dangers, like poachers. They spent so many years away from home that they began to have their own families in these new lands. After many more years, they traveled to another new home and by chance were reunited.

This was a super sweet story! I found myself crushed at the fact that they were separated for so long but loved that they were still so close of friends in the end. There's something sweet about elephants. This was a great book and it was easy to read. My kids enjoyed the concept of the elephants and their journey but it was a little difficult to wrap their heads around everything that went on in the book. I know it's a children's book but there was something about it that didn't have my children totally invested in it. I would only recommend this for people and and children who are incredibly into elephants.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving a free copy.

I want to say that just because a book is a picture book, it does not mean it is intended for young children. Little One, You are the Universe contains important information about protecting wildlife while also sharing the idea of true friendship. Two young elephants, Lotus and Adia meet at the river. They develop a close and lasting friendship. They are captured and both are used as work animals. They eventually get sent to Canada where they do reunite. Two important points to me are that animals have feelings and develop lasting relationships and the importance of conservation and humanitarian campaigns for all animals, especially those that are endangered. There is also a lot of text in this book, which made me decide not to read it to my young grandchildren. Having said that, I liked this book and would definitely recommend it to older children (9+). The story is told in a gentle way, and is well illustrated. A good book to read in a classroom that is studying endangered animals, conservation and learning about the dangers animals live with such as poaching, capturing for zoos and circuses, and using for work/labour.

This was a nice story in terms of them getting back together at the end but I am not 100% sure of the age group that it is being pitched at as it is a little older for the age range I thought it was initially aimed at with some of the content.

I liked the characters of the two elephants but it needs a little bit of explanation to a child about what has happened and why.

The illustrations were not for me but they will definitely appeal to some other readers and that should not detract people from picking up the book and making their own views on it.

It is 3 stars from me for this one.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

Little one, you are the universe is a beautiful children's picture book about two elephants who become best friends as youngsters and get separated. The elephants never forget about each other and miss each other terribly. One day they become reunited in each others lives again and thus was heartwarming and beautiful throughout.
I particularly liked the Lion in the story. The only thing I was unsure about was the poaching side as I would aim this at an older age group.

I decided to read Little One, You Are The Universe as I love elephants almost as much as I love cats! This story follows the friendship formed between Adia and Lotus, two elephants living in India. This story is realistic and a bit dark so may not be suitable for very young children. Thanks to NetGalley for my digital copy.

Great book for children 5+, a sweet story about two baby elephants who are best friends from Northern India. They have a strong friendship until they are separated and end up sent to different countries until they are sent to safety avoiding poachers, they end up reuniting in Canada at a watermelon party after both enduring hardships being enslaved to humans,

A really lovely book with beautiful illustrations, allowing little ones to learn about the world, how elephants are endangered and about poachers within our world and how it affects certain animals and cultures, coupled with flow and some great writing, it's a truly lovely books, though it was a little long for the girls they loved the pictures and had plenty of questions.

Many thanks to Netgalley, publishers and the author, Zeni Shariff - a truly lovely book! I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

True friendship is like a gem, a real rarity, but also something that lasts forever. The idea of ​​Little One, You are the Universe is really cute and sweet and enough to interest us as parents, as well as our little ones.
The little elephants, named Lotus and Adia do not forget each other even after years in captivity, or after everything, they go through. They remember each other and their wonderful friendship.
But I'm not sure if the realization of the idea is something that excites me. Empathy for wildlife should indeed be developed from an early age, and it is a great idea to introduce children to the details of wildlife, their vulnerability, and their value to society. But somehow poaching and labor camp for elephants are topics that I would leave for later, at a time when the child will be emotionally mature enough to understand the severity and consequences of those actions. Definitely not in this moment when my son is only 3.
The choice of language structures, although quite picturesque and varied, is somehow not suitable for a picture book, too much text and a bad choice of font greatly diminish the appeal of the picture book. It must be admitted that this picture book offers some great ideas with which we could encourage our little ones to talk and think, such as friendship, where the animals come from, the zoo, the habitats of different animals...

This was a bit confusing and long story for a picture book. I did not enjoy it. It was trying to fit in too much into these pages.

I enjoyed this unique story, but I felt like the typography and art style were too distracting and not aesthetically pleasing.

I was granted complimentary access to a review copy of Little One, You are the Universe by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Little One, You are the Universe is the story of two elephants named Lotus and Adia who form a close friendship as children, are separated when captured by humans and sent off to different places, then reunited years later. (Meanwhile, their family herd searches for them.) The artwork is clearly a collaborative effort between a group of children, and I love it! Some of these would even make great art prints on their own. I'm particularly charmed by the lion.

I do have a factual critique about one of the plot elements: snow in winter. Snow and ice are presented as a normal thing the elephants experience, but given that there are cheetahs and lions we are most definitely in Africa, and snow in Africa is only common in mountain ranges. For most of this book the elephants are shown in flat scenery, and the big cats and zebras features definitely do not favour the mountains. It's an odd detail to have the elephants encounter snow and not explain it.

The text was quite difficult to read. The font is small and black with a blurry white stroke layered over pictures of grey elephants, line spacing is tight, and some pages have far too much text for images underneath. It might have been much more readable if the book was formatted as alternating text on white pages next to illustrations.

This book started out really cute and I was reading it to my one and a half year son and then it got very dark. I stopped reading it because despite being marketed as a children's book, its not appropriate.

A pleasant book and story. I’m not a huge fan of the illustrations, some of them lacked definition to aid a young reader’s understanding so I’d say this would suit an over 5s audience.

This is a lovely, sweet children's picture book about two female elephants who become best friends and then they get separated for many years. Will they manage to find each other again? I loved this book and I enjoyed the cute elephants, the scenery, the beautiful hand drawn images and the writing.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Little One, You are the Universe by Zeni Shariff is a sweet little story about two young elephants who get separated from each other, travel to different lands, but then find each other again in the end. I enjoyed the descriptions of their journeys.

I enjoy the hand painted images of the animals and the land but I didn't care for how the text was overlayed with a hazy shadow. It made it a little bit hard to read.

The book was also pretty wordy for a short picture book, so my 5yo child lost some interest. So I'd say this is a better one for elementary school aged children (and up).

Thanks to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for the advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is a children's story about displacement of animals from their natural habitat for human benefits.
This short book teaches children the importance of not disrupting the natural way of things and especially not hurting or or mistreating animals.

I could imagine myself reading this to my future children hopefully.

a book with a great message.

This is a lovely story about 2 young, shy elephants that get seperated, but then Find each other again!
Talks in great detail about their journeys and also the risks they face regarding poachers etc.
The illustrations are very cute too.
A little too long for my 4 year old - but I love elephants so I enjoyed it

Little One, You are the Universe is the story about two elephants who are best friends but become separated. It iis a sweet story with lovely illustrations throughout.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for my copy.

I am a sucker for a good tragic animal story, but this was a miss for me. The story felt very all over the place, and my daughter kept asking me things like "wait, how did an elephant not wake up when being taken across the world to a ship?" . It was just not a solid flowing story line. The art was very child-like, which normally I don't mind, but it didn't fit the serious tone of the book at all.

Review to come next week to blog/Goodreads.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I spotted this book on Netgalley and was interested in it. I love stories about elephants, they are also one of my favourite animals, so I just knew I had to try this out.

A book about two elephant friends, Adia and Lotus who get separated one day and then at the end get reunited. We see how their friendship started and I was just awwwing and ooohing at the cuteness of it all. They were just the cutest! How they told each other about their dreams, their plans, how they had fun eating fruit and playing with water.

But the happy days aren't that long and they get separated. Which was a bit confusing as we mostly saw Lotus's experience and then only know that Adia is somewhere else when the birds tell the railway elephants to flee to the boats. For my feeling Adia never moved. :P

I do wonder how they ever found each other. Canada isn't as tiny as my country, so it isn't an easy trip, especially since we see seasons have passed since Lotus has come to the country. Or was that also Adia? The art definitely didn't help making the story more clear, so maybe I just mixed things up. Either way, I did like that they found each other again, and at a party even. It was quite cute to see them still remember the other despite many years having passed since then (which I also never felt, I just thought a short time had passed).

Sadly... the art... sorry not my cup of tea. Sometimes the elephants looked like elephants (like the cover) but at times they just didn't. :( And since it is such a big part of the book (this is a picture book) I am deducing some points from my rating.

All in all, there are points of improvement here. It was a cute idea, I like the two elephants. But with the story feeling weird time-wise and the art not always working out, it made things confusing.