What a Wonderful World Picture Book

by Tim Hopgood (Illustrations), Bob Thiele (Original Song), George David Weiss (Original Song)

The classic and beloved song is brought to life with bright and colorful illustrations by Tim Hopgood.

First recorded in 1967 by Louis Armstrong, and with sales of over one million copies, "What a Wonderful World" has become a poignant message of hope for people everywhere. Sweet and positive in its message, with bright, beautiful art, this book is sure to be a hit. Perfect for sharing!

Genres: Picture Books, Music, Childrens, Storytime, Fiction, Poetry, Kids

32 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1988

About the author

Tim Hopgood is an award-winning illustrator whose work has been featured in magazines such as Esquire, GQ, and Harper’s. He lives in York, England.

Reviews

[Sheri]

Songs can tell the most wonderful stories. I'm loving these books with their bright and colorful pictures!

[Jon Nakapalau]

Wonderful song - wonderful art - wonderful lesson. I often think of how we all should just listen to the words and STOP - stop and appreciate what this wonderful planet has given us - stop and think about how we all are basically looking for the same things to fulfill our needs. Maybe then we could see the world in a very different way!

[booklady]

When our girls were little, I LOVED the song of this name and would play it over and over and OVER with tears running down my face singing it to them. The line that got to me the most was the last one, ‘I hear babies cry. I watch them grow. They'll learn much more than I'll never know. And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.’

Imagine my surprise to discover that my daughter’s mother-in-law loved that song as much as I did and found a board book of that song and bought it for our granddaughter! I loved reading (and singing it to her last week. (And crying again!)

No matter what, so long as there are babies, it still IS a wonderful world!

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023)]

10* art
5* concept

Nothing could be quite so cheerful and happy as the illustrations in this book. We sing through this book together, Squirt and I, and always get stuck on the rainbow page, where he picks a colour and pretends to slide down the rainbow. Lots of fun. Wish we owned this one.

2016 Update:

Still loving this book. Have borrowed it multiple times. May be one of our all-time favorite song/story kid's books ever - which is a genre unto itself, by the way, and a whole lot of fun.

[Melanie Harrison]

Used with Year 1's to create a short poem about a wonderful world (linking also with their topic and history on climate change/ activists).

Got children to follow poem along by listening to Luis Armstrong's song and then discussing.
Developed children's use of 'sense' to describe how they see/smell/feel/hear/taste the world around them (outside lesson).
Developed their bank of adjectives via the senses activity to describe the world.

[Richard]

Nice, but not great.

One page has a bunch of kids of many skin hues, but the rest features only a brown-haired white boy, like it was written in the long-ago.

Why couldn't each page have featured a different kid, showing how the song's lyrics tie everyone together?

[Kris]

Bright, colorful illustrations make this adaptation of the song very kid-friendly. My only complaint is that it misses the feel of the song - the melancholy in the joy, and the fleeting nature of it all. That might be a bit much for a picture book, though. 😂

[Κόκκινη Αλεπού]

Πενήντα ένα χρόνια μετά την πρώτη του ηχογράφηση (1967), το τραγούδι έγινε και εικονογραφημένο βιβλίο. Ο Tim Hopgood έκανε τους στίχους εικόνα και μετέτρεψε το εμβληματικό μουσικό κομμάτι σε ένα βιβλίο για παιδιά. Χρησιμοποιώντας gouache και τέμπερες, ο βραβευμένος συγγραφέας και εικονογράφος δημιούργησε ένα πολύ όμορφο, πολύ χαρούμενο, γεμάτο ζωντανά και λαμπερά χρώματα σκηνικό, πάνω στο οποίο παιδιά από όλες τις φυλές παρατηρούν τον κόσμο μας. Ένα βιβλίο, που όπως και το τραγούδι, γεμίζει με αισιοδοξία και ελπίδα όποιον το διαβάσει, ένα βιβλίο απαραίτητο σε κάθε παιδί (και κάθε ενήλικα) που ζει σε μια μία από τις πιο σκοτεινές για την ανθρωπότητα περιόδους.

Περισσότερα εδώ --> http://kokkinialepou.gr/ma-ti-yperoch...

[Lina]

Another favorite that came from my sister. Louis Armstrong reminds me of my childhood and specifically I remember looking out at a beautiful sunset in my backyard when I was a child and thinking about the lyrics to this song. It touches my heart every time I listen to it and reading the book conjures up those feelings as well. The pictures in the noon are stunning as well.

[Amber]

Loved this book!

[Varvara V]

The book is based on a song sung by Louis Armstrong and the illustrations just follow the beauty of the world. The colors of the world are revealed. I recommend this book because it is a lovely written piece and the illustrations are colorful. Early readers can look at the words and how they align with the drawings to understand what it is about. A teacher can incorporate using the song with this book after reading it and getting students physically involved with dance. It talks more about the world rather than the people.

[Jocelin]

A really great book to introduce little ones to a creative world of delights. It's also a great way to learn the lyrics of thee great song immortalized by Louis Armstrong. It also teaches about colors. Really great book.

[Brook Donatelli]

I think this book is adorable! The illustrations are beautiful, and it fits to the Louis Armstrong song. I think making this song into a picture book is such a cute thing, its giving the message that the world truly is beautiful and the pictures in the book help to show that as well.

[Laura McLoughlin]

Loved. Impossible to read without wanting to sing along. Plan to get this one for baby #2 soon.

[Jenn]

Love singing this to my baby. He likes to look at the illustrations and am happy the child in the book looks like my son. :D

[Beyondthebookends]

Gorgeous pictures accompany the words to the famous song. This book is a modern lullaby with a message of peace and love.

more reviews at beyondthebookends.com!

[J.C.]

The magic of this verse is timeless. And these images are delightful!

[Tori]

A song in picture-book form, beautifully illustrated by Tim Hopgood. Lovely, lovely, lovely! Will make an excellent storytime. Absolutely intend to use this one.

[Holly Pretzel]

This is a really cool book set to the lyrics of What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong. It's perfect for those of us who played this song at their wedding or just love the song. I appreciate the illustrative spin of an adventure being had by a child. And it's always fun to have a book you can sing to.

[Janet]

This is a picture book that Tim Hopgood created colorful illustrations for to illustrate the song by the same name first sung by Louie Armstrong in 1967.
It truly is about seeing the beauty of nature in our World. This might be good to use for an Earth Day program and have young children tell or do an art project of what the see as beauty in our World.

[Annalise Kraines]

Utterly sweet. I teared up.

[L.A.]

Beautiful illustrations! I’m so glad someone bothered to take the time to write a book featuring one of my favorite songs.

[oohlalabooks]

Read to my kids and we love it. The pictures are bright and vibrant, the words are easy!

[Rowan]

Beautiful illustrations. I sing through the book with my kids each morning.

[Loretta]

How many times can I cry while singing this to my kids?

[R. L. Peterson]

I love this book so much! Adorable illustrations for a lovely song 🥰

[Emily]

This is such a beautifully illustrated book with lyrics to the popular song by Louis Armstrong. The pages are so bright and colorful that you could get lost in them while you read. This would be a great book for infants-early elementary school years. I highly recommend this fun read!

[Emma-Leigh]

Just a beautifully illustrated book for the song What a Wonderful World.

[Mama Bibliosoph]

It is impossible not to feel the purest joy that radiates from this book. The illustrations, which beautifully and literally realize the well-known lyrics in a fun, retro style, set a happy tone. All that's needed to complete the spell is an adult to do their best Louis Armstrong impression.

If you think about it, What a Wonderful World has always been a song about colors and light. There are "trees of green, "red roses," "skies of blue," "clouds of white," and rainbows. There is also both a "bright blessed day," and a "dark sacred night." My son Luke was excited to point to these color elements and label them. Kids with autism usually learn to label colors in their first teaching programs, so color language becomes highly reinforcing.

Luke also easily caught on to the repetition of the line "What a wonderful world" and especially enjoyed the page filled with hearts for the lyric "I love you."

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I review books for children from the perspective of a parent of kids with autism. The review above is part of a longer post on books about singalong books: https://www.lineupthebooks.com/40-sin...

[Heidi-Marie]

I have always loved this song. Brings me close to tears sometimes. I liked the illustrations. This brings it to a kids' level of seeing the wonder, but applying that to the world and not just the immediate things around them. This will be good in preschool ST. Might even be able to adapt this for my special needs ST.

7/20/16 Used in "W is for..." theme. I debated whether I should sing the lines to them or not. Couldn't bring myself to it. So I just read the words. The kids liked the pictures. One or two picked up on the repeated "what a wonderful world" phrase. Not bad. I played a youtube video of the song afterwards so they could hear it. I think they liked that. Definitely sweeter for us adults who know the song and the depth in its meaning.