July/August 2003

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

World-Mindedness and Children’s Books

Lani Gerson, a student of children’s literature for many years, is an elementary school librarian/teacher in Newton, Massachusetts.

Ted Lewin illustration for The Day of Ahmed's Secret

The pages are yellowed and aged, but the spine of the book has not been cracked. The paperback is very old by the standards of a school library, published in 1969. It’s priced at $1.50, but it has never been taken from the shelf, checked out, or read by children in my school. Time to throw it out, I think, but the title catches my attention and prevents me from flinging it into the recycle bin. How the Children Stopped the Wars by Jan Wahl. Hmmm.

This short chapter book with a medieval setting has a dreamy quality to it. Is it a fantasy? Yes, of sorts. Is it like Harry Potter? No, most definitely not. It is also much shorter—95 pages. Is it preachy? No, it is clear in its message, but restrained and poetic. Uillame, the main character, asks the fundamental question—why doesn’t somebody stop the constant wars and fighting? A mysterious stranger answers him with a question, “Why don’t you?”

Uillame decides the answer to that question by moving slowly and steadily toward the battlefields, gathering a strange parade of children behind him. Hindered by robbers and pirate thieves, but helped by kind friars in an abbey, the children finally arrive at the war zone. Holding hands with the starving “zombie children” of the opposing side, the children together confront the soldiers in the midst of their battle. “Could the fathers fight again, now, with their children watching?” That is also an interesting question.

I am planning to introduce this book to students in the fall. Will they find it interesting, compelling? I think so. Can we find a way to build on the story and extend it with meaningful activities? I hope. And, now if you wish to find the book, I’d suggest ordering a used copy on the Web. Amazon and other on-line bookstores list it as out-of-print, but available as a used book. Perhaps your public librarian, like me, has kept it on the shelf, hoping someone will check it out.

There are some other children’s books more readily available that also examine big questions in manageable ways. If the World Were a Village is such a book. It asks the reader to imagine the world’s 6.2 billion people as a village of one hundred souls. Using a variety of statistical indices and calculations the book reduces issues like food, shelter, air and water, schooling and literacy to a comprehensible level. For example: in such a global village of 100 people, “60 people are always hungry, and 26 of these are severely undernourished, 16 other people go to bed hungry at least some of the time. Only 24 people always have enough to eat.”

I try to team If the World Were a Village with Molly Bang’s Common Ground: The Water, Earth, and Air We Share and Material World: A Global Family Portrait. Students in the third and fourth grades love looking through these books, and I love overhearing them ask each other questions like: “How many TVs do you own?”, “How many bathrooms does one family need?”, “How many cars in your driveway?!”, and “Can’t we just use rockets to fly us to another planet when this one is destroyed?” Interesting and challenging questions.

Diane Stanley has been writing and illustrating award-winning biographies for young readers for some time, and her newest book, Saladin: Noble Prince of Islam, is excellent. Saladin was not a pacifist, but in the context of his time and place he was a visionary leader, tolerant and merciful in peace and war. In addition to presenting a Muslim view of the Crusades, this book also introduces an important, multi-dimensional Middle East historical hero to children of the United States. A balance of sorts to King Richard the Lion-Hearted and Charlemagne whom they know something about. Stanley illustrates this oversize book in a manner inspired by the Islamic art of the twelfth century. Although Stanley’s books are formatted like picture books, the reading level is high and they are definitely geared to better (grade 4 and older) readers. Other titles in the series include: Michelangelo, Cleopatra, Charles Dickens: The Man Who Had Great Expectations, Shaka: King of the Zulus, and The Last Princess: The Story of Princess Ka’iulani of Hawai’i.

Finally, I’d like to call attention to the many picture books written and illustrated by Ted Lewin. Mr. Lewin’s water color paintings are realistic, almost photographic, and illuminate the details of life in many parts of the world. There is a quality to Lewin’s paintings—whether of Ahmed’s life in Cairo, or Sami’s ordeals in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war—which draws the readers in and engage their interest. Well researched and based upon his many travels, Ted Lewin’s own writings are low key, undramatic but informative in their everyday-ness. My students in kindergarten and grades one and two spend a surprising amount of time studying the pictures and asking questions about the people in Mr. Lewin’s books.

David J. Smith, the author of If the World Were a Village, writes about “world-mindedness,” and suggests ways to foster in children an attitude of caring about the world and its people. Certainly a few good books are only a beginning, but they are important windows on the world for children. During the past two years I have been on the lookout for books like these to share with my students. In the aftermath of 9/11, and during the wars in the Middle East, I have introduced books which provide children with information about the world, including the Middle East. The books presented here are examples of children’s literature that might prompt children to ask who will stop the wars, who will save the planet, and, perhaps, to answer with the question Uillame was asked, “Why don’t you?”

Good books for encouraging world-mindedness:

Common Ground: The Water, Earth, and Air We Share, Molly Bang, The Blue Sky Press, 1997
The Day of Ahmed’s Secret, Florence Parry Heide & Judith Heide Gilliland, illustrated by Ted Lewin, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1990
How the Children Stopped the Wars, Jan Wahl, illustrated by Mitchell Miller, Avon Books, 1969
If the World Were a Village: A Book about the World’s People, David J. Smith, illustrated by Shelagh Armstrong, Kids Can Press, 2002
Material World: A Global Family Portrait, Peter Menzel and Charles C. Mann, Sierra Club Books, 1994
Saladin: Noble Prince of Islam, Diane Stanley, HarperCollins, 2002
Sami and the Time of the Troubles, Florence Parry Heide & Judith Heide Gilliland, illustrated by Ted Lewin, Clarion Books, 1992
The Storytellers, Ted Lewin, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1998

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