Book Descriptions
for If the World Were a Village by David J. Smith and Shelagh Armstrong
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
The worlds’s population was “6 billion, 200 million” on January 1, 2002. It can be hard to comprehend a number that large. “But what if we imagined the whole population of the world as a village of just 100 people?” That’s the question posed in this volume in which each person in that village of 100 represents 62 million people from the real world. What would that global village look like? Here, its inhabitants are broken down into into nationalities (21 are from China…5 are from the United States…2 are from Nigeria), languages (9 speak English, 8 speak Hindi…), ages, religions (32 are Christians, 19 are Muslims, 13 are Hindus…), food (60 people are always hungry; only 24 have enough to eat), air and water quality (32 breathe air that is unhealthy), schooling and literacy, money and possessions (the richest 20 people have more than $9,000 each year…the poorest 20 people have less than $1 a day), and access to electricity. The book also provides a brief glimpse of the village in the past, and a projection of the village in the future. More important, it invites us all to consider ourselves part of that global village, and to ponders the importance of the well-being of all within that community. Each two-page spread examines one aspect of the global village with text and deeply hued acrylic illustrations. (Ages 8-12)
CCBC Choices 2003 . © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2003. Used with permission.
From the Publisher
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.
Publisher description retrieved from Google Books.