This Child, Every Child: A Book about the World's Children (CitizenKid)

Ling is a young girl, living on a boat in the Aberdeen Harbor in Hong Kong. Temani is a five-year-old Yemani boy whose family had to move due to inter-tribal war. Mamadou is eleven and lives in a village near Bamako, the capital of Mali, with his father and his father’s two wives. These are just

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three of the dozens of fictional children whose stories are told by David J Smith in “This Child, Every Child,” an overviewed look at the many different ways children live in this world. Using the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child as an outline, Smith discusses the diverse ways these rights may affect children in different countries and cultures. He includes the entire convention in the back of the book, published in “Child Friendly Language” so young readers won’t have difficulty understanding. Shelag Armstrong’s acrylic paint illustrations are surprisingly thoughtful (see p.21 for illustration of western-clad mother and daughter peering through a mirror at their reflections, wearing the head scarves native to their home country, Iran). The book is text-heavy, targeting a slightly older audience than the illustrations would suppose leading to a narrower audience scope, which is unfortunate – the book is packed with helpful, insightful perspectives on diversity. Recommended for fourth- and fifth grade.

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