If the World Were a Village

Smith, David. 2002. "If the World Were a Village." Toronto: Kids Can Press. pp 32. ISBN: 1-55074-779-7

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Gr. 3-5, younger for reading aloud. To make the idea of a world of 6.2 billion people more understandable, Smith suggests that children imagine the population of the world as a village of just 100 people. That's one person representing 62 million people in the real world. Surprising, even shocking statistics follow--for example, many kids in the U. S. take computers for granted, but only seven people in the global village own one. Each double-page, picture-book spread relates a few consciousness-raising facts about such topics as nationalities, food, language, and religion. With the aid of a calculator, even younger kids can do the math; the tricky part is to get children to really understand the ideas. Armstrong's large acrylic paintings, nice complements to the text, look like stained glass windows, with blocks of intense color outlined in thick black lines. This highly informative book will get kids thinking and asking questions, and it can easily be incorporated into a middle-school social studies curriculum. The endnote suggests related activities for home and classroom. Lauren Peterson
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Just as the review suggests, this book gets the kids thinking. The content is relatively simple but it opens up the world in a relaxed way. It is an informal book and not always written in standard sentences. I think this change of pace can be refreshing in a classroom. But the students can use their reading strategies to get curious and think beyond the text.