The 2nd Edition of the best-selling book which has sold over 400 000 copies in 17 languages ? updated with new content and insights about the world's people. First published to wide acclaim in 2002, this eye-opening book has since become a classic, promoting "world-mindedness" by imagining the world's population ? all 6.8 billion of us ? as a village of just 100 people. Now, If the World Were a Village has been newly revised with updated statistics, several new activities and completely new material on food security, energy and health. By exploring the lives of the 100 villagers, children will discover that life in other nations is often very different from their own. If the World Were a Village is part of CitizenKid: A collection of books that inform children about the world and inspire them to be better global citizens.
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Six billion people is a big number for a 6-year-old to grasp. So educational consultant David J. Smith has come up with an intriguing concept to help children better understand the significance of global population growth. In his picture book If the World Were a Village, Smith invites young readers to imagine the world as a village of just 100 people (each of whom represents 62 million people in the real world.)
Here the numbers start to tell their story. If the world is a village, how many of its 100 villagers get enough to eat? How many children can afford to go to school? Smith brings global statistics down to size, enabling children to visualize the differences between the world's haves and have-nots. Of his 100 villagers, for example, only 24 regularly have enough to eat. Only 31 of the 38 school-aged children go to school, and those who don't are mostly girls. Moreover, while 76 villagers have electricity, there are just 24 TV sets and no more than seven computers in the village.
Smith, who lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and leads educational workshops throughout the world, calls his first children's book an introduction to "world-mindedness," which he describes as "the sense that our planet is actually a village, and we share this small, precious village with our neighbors." Unfortunately, Shelagh Armstrong's faceless illustrations work at cross-purposes with Smith's message that the numbers are about real people. Even so, If the World Were a Village makes a fascinating learning tool. (Ages 6 to 10) --Lisa Alward --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
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
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Format:Hardcover
I am a grade 3 teacher in Alberta, Canada, and this book is fantastic for the grade 3 curriculum! We learn about quality of life and how kids live in other countries around the world and this book is a great way to tie it all together. There is an accompanying video for the book as well which I always show to the kids after we read and discuss it.
By David Walske
Format:Hardcover
David Smith's marvelous book, "If the World Were a Village" is a superb example of Information Architecture in its use of scale to make the difficult concept of global human metrics understandable. This children's book easily transcends its genre, bringing meaning and understanding to readers of all ages.
13 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I actually wished for a 2 1/2 stars with this book. It's concept of making the world a village of 100 people makes statistics easier to understand. The mind is much more able to visualize the world and it's conditions. However, speaking against the tide of praise, which is never popular, I was very put-off by the pages at the end of the book regarding how to teach children about the global village. More than once, the author tells us that the "ONLY way" the goals of sufficient food, literacy and clean living conditions for everyone in the global village can be met is to stablilize the world's population. A book so focused on presenting facts and figures to children wants us to pump them full of government controlled population or worse, zero population, as the only way to "save the global village". A book that could have, and quite honestly should have, produced healthy conversations about environmental/humanitarian concerns and solutions just became a one way street of population propaganda.
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4.3 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as good as I hoped
This is a neat idea for a book and there is a television clip based on the book that has aired. It tries to give perspective to kids about the world community we live in by... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Anonymous in Canada
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thought Provoking
This book is amazing! It takes the world population down to 100 people and then lists how many people would be able to read, go to school, be homeless, have a family. Read more
Published on Jan 14 2007 by M. McDonald
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Appreciated Gift
We received our first copy of this book as a gift last year. It provoked a most interesting conversation in our family (which includes two teenagers). Read more
Published on Dec 27 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read this With a Child Again and Again!
Both thoughtful and equally stimulating, "If The World Were a Village" succeeds in opening the eyes and the minds of young readers through a quite creative format. Read more
Published on Dec 19 2002 by Eric Steinert
5.0 out of 5 stars
An original and interesting book for all ages
I purchased this book as a gift for a friend's child. I left the book on my desk and one of my colleagues leafed through it and was hooked. Read more
Published on Nov 26 2002 by Evan Loeffler
5.0 out of 5 stars
Creating "World-Mindedness" in the Classroom
We love this book! We have host international teachers from all over the world and have given them each a copy to use in their classrooms while teaching in the US. Read more
Published on Nov 26 2002 by "mbreen13"
5.0 out of 5 stars
Global to Local Village
I am a fourth grade teacher and discovered that "If the World Were a Village" provides endless teaching and learning opportunities. Read more
Published on Aug 16 2002 by "marilynweiser"
5.0 out of 5 stars
Required reading
Every home, school, and public library -- and every child -- should have this book. In just a few pages, it places those of us who live lives of privilege in our true place. Read more
Published on July 13 2002 by Stephanie
5.0 out of 5 stars
If All Books Were This Interesting
Over the years IÕve received several forwards of a small essay which reduced the world population of approximately six billion to a more manageable one hundred so that crucial... Read more
Published on May 12 2002 by Alexander Mastroianni
5.0 out of 5 stars
If All Books Were This Interesting
Over the years IÕve received several forwards of a small essay which reduced the world population of approximately six billion to a more manageable one hundred so that crucial... Read more
Published on May 12 2002 by Alexander Mastroianni
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