Reviewed by Leighton Graves, age 10, Richmond Hill, Ont.Reviewed by Leighton Graves, age 10, Richmond Hill, Ont.
If the World Were a Village: A Book About the World’s People
I like the way this book explains the world and everything in it. The book represents the world as a village of 100 people. Each person represents over 65 million people. It teaches that if everything in the village was shared fairly, everyone would have enough, but things in the village are not shared fairly, just like our real world.
[pullquote]There are 100 people in the global village and 250 chickens. Technically, we don’t all like chickens, (to eat, that is) and not all of us like eggs, but my point is that there is more food available than people; we just don’t share it. And that is only good news for the chickens.
When I read this book, I realized how much I actually have; more than most of the other people in the world. This realization made me want to be generous to others and give some of what I have.
Ryan and Jimmy and the Well that Brought them Together
This story is about a kid who raised enough money to build a well in Africa. It was built near a school. I felt attached to this kid, Ryan, because this is something that I have always wanted to do. Ryan’s teacher got him to write to a boy in Africa, Jimmy, as pen pals. I also learned that sometimes children are taken away to work as soldiers. Jimmy managed to get away and came home with Ryan to North America. This would be a good book for teachers to read to their classes to tell their classes that it is important to think about others and not just ourselves. If one kid can make such a big difference, then many more working together can make the world a better place.
The Creation Story: In Words and Sign Language
Reviewed by Anastasia Graves, age 5, Richmond Hill, Ont.
I am five years old and just learning to read. When I picked up this book, the first thing that I did was to try and follow the sign-language pictures. The sign language pictures were like a game to practise as Mom read the book to me. The pictures were easy enough to follow by myself and I remembered a few of the signs after reading the book one time. The rest of the book was simple and easy to follow. When mom asked me, I told her I liked the pictures best but I also liked to try out the sign language.
Reviewed by Maggie Snyder, age 9, Christ Church Cathedral School (Anglican), Victoria
Mary
The cover draws you to the book and makes you feel like you want to read it. On almost every page, there is an angel in the pictures, which reminds you that you are never alone. I found that the illustrations make you feel like you are looking through a window at the story as it is being told, like you are there. The detail and the colours throughout the book made me feel the emotions of the people in the story. Like on the page where Jesus is being crucified, the colour and detail of the pictures made me feel the sadness and anger that Mary must have felt as she watched her son die.
The story taught me about Mary’s life before she became Jesus’ mother. It was interesting. It was also comforting to be reminded that just because someone leaves your house and your life for a long, long time, doesn’t mean that they have forgotten you. I also learned about Mary being crowned queen of heaven and earth when she died. It makes me feel safe and happy knowing she is watching over us.
I think because of the beautiful pictures that even children who can’t read yet will enjoy having the book read to them.
Moses
Like the book Mary, the cover for Moses draws you in and makes you feel like you want to read it, which I did and I enjoyed it for the most part. There were some parts of the story that were confusing. It felt like the author was trying to put too many events into one paragraph. I did learn that God led the people during the day with a pillar of cloud and during the night with a pillar of fire, that was cool.
The pictures also give you the feeling of looking through a window, but it’s a bigger window than in Mary’s story and it felt more like I was right there in the action.
