This Child, Every Child: A Book about the World's Children (CitizenKid)

This CitizenKid title from the creators of If the World Were a Village takes a global look at the lives of contemporary children. Balancing statistics with fictional profiles of kids, Smith's concise narrative focuses on such topics as families, homes, health, work, war, and play. Each spread contains accessible summaries of articles from 1989's United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, underscoring the disparity between many children's lives and that document's vision and goals. This is not an easy book: Smith shares sobering figures, including that there are more than 100 million homeless children in the world, nearly 220 million between the ages of five and 17 work full-time, and 300,000 children belong to rebel armies. Such hard-hitting data should encourage readers to consider several questions and suggestions for taking action included in back matter. Rendered in acrylics with digital textures, Armstrong's gauzy paintings sometimes span multiple cultures in a single illustration (a kicked soccer ball bridges games in Australia and Indonesia), reinforcing the universal nature of children's needs. Ages 8-12. (Feb.)

Gr 3-6--The author's goal is to introduce children around the world and show how their lives measure up to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. For each chapter, one of the articles is boxed, and a child in a specific country is highlighted; e.g., Sam was taken from his family in Sierra Leone and forced to join a rebel army. Smith reveals inequalities in such areas as food, homes, families, work, health, and education. Each page is packed with text that documents the struggles of many children, but it lacks depth. Each spread only scratches the surface with data regarding where and how the featured children live, and what their lives are like. The book is illustrated with soft, colorful, realistic illustrations showing youngsters in various environments, from sampan to skyscraper, from Niger to Sweden. The articles and information on learning more appear at the end along with some suggestions on how children might become involved in seeking positive changes in the lives of those less fortunate. This book may be used for an overview of world culture, but additional research will be necessary for a complete picture.--Margaret R. Tassia, Millersville University, PA