"The World Came To My Place Today," Jo Readman and Ley Honor Roberts, Random House; 2004; 24 pp.

It's a small world after all, as George finds out in this delightfully illustrated paperback. George is home getting bored when his grandfather draws his attention to a magical phenomenon: Tucked into an envelope, fried into a potato crisp, packaged into a chocolate bar, the whole wide world visits George each day. In fact, once you're conscious of it, you'll find that this miracle takes place in your home, too, day after day. The letters the postman delivers are made of paper from trees in Canada; potatoes grow in farms all over the world before they are sliced finely and fried to make crisps; and the cocoa beans used to make chocolate grow in West Africa.

The cover jacket of "The World Came to my Place Today" sports a colorful double spread of our world, with a bottle of sunflower oil to mark Russia, for instance, or a bowl of rice congee to signpost China. By truck and by steamer, by plane and by railroad, whatever you eat, wear and use -- be it rubber from Malaysia or coffee from South America -- hitches a ride across the world to arrive at your doorstep.