If the World Were a Village: Book About the World's People [Hardcover]

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

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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This highly informative book will get kids thinking and asking questions.

It’s an eye-opener for all.

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.

David J. Smith is a teacher and educational consultant with over 25 years of experience in the classroom and is the creator of the award-winning curriculum "Mapping the World by Heart."

Shelagh Armstrong is a freelance commercial artist who has designed adult book covers, stamps and commemorative coins .If the World Were a Village was her first children's book. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.