Review: This Child, Every Child: A Book about the World's Children by David J. Smith

This Child, Every Child: A Book about the World's Children by David J. Smith. A Citizen Kid Book.

Kids Can Press
Publication Date: February 2011
List Price: $18.95
ISBN-13: 9781554534661

Review: Children, particularly American children, are growing up in a technologically advanced and privileged world where they are more concerned with their cell phone than anything else. The egocentrism that is often associated with children is only becoming more pronounced. However, David J. Smith has written a book that opens a child's eyes to a world outside their own. This Child, Every Child: A Book about the World's Children is a captivating look at the lives of children around the world.

This Child, Every Child is organized in topical groups such as education, war, and gender roles. Each section focuses on the life of a fictional character who might live in the region being explored. The realization that hits when a child sees that not every child even has access to the basics such as food, clothing, water, and even air is profound. A wide variety of nationalities and religious groups is presented in the book, and accompanying each segment is an excerpt from the United Nations Convention's Rights of the Child (which is presented in a full child-friendly version in the back of the book) showing children what the UN has done to protect them from these inequalities.

Overall, This Child, Every Child is a good book. The stories are captivating, and the facts presented are shared in such a way that they not only prove to be informative, but also leave the reader with something to think about. Also, the additional excerpts from the Rights of the Child is a good companion piece. In truth, the brief stories from different places could have been longer and more detailed. Typically they are just a paragraph or two. Readers will find themselves either wanting to learn more about the child or unaffected because there wasn't enough depth to pull them in to the story. Although the book jacket states "young readers" will enjoy the book, it's more appropriate for upper elementary, and that being said could be a longer book. However, it would be a great addition to any elementary classroom to be used as a read-aloud - focusing on parts of the book that might relate to curricular areas being studied. For this purpose, the shorter snippets are perfect. So, in the end, depending on what a reader is hoping to get out of This Child, Every Child, it is either perfect or a little short on details. Either way, it is for the most part engaging and might just be one way to get children to look past their cell phones and see that a whole world of 2.2 billion children is out there - waiting to be discovered.

Review written by Margo Nauert (6th grade teacher).

We would like to thank Raab Associates for providing a copy of This Child, Every Child: A Book about the World's Children for this review.

Have you read This Child, Every Child: A Book about the World's Children? How would you rate it?