Customer Reviews

To Be a Kid

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a parent I wanted my four-year-old daughter to see other kids who "looked like her" and yet others who didn't. She enjoys the same things as the kids pictured: spending time with family, playing games, and dancing. The pictures are wonderful, not just from my perspective but also from hers.

My only disappointment was that she didn't see parents with disabilities like her father, nor kids with disabilities. Of course kids with disabilities spend time with family, dance, and play games. That they wouldn't is a pernicious stereotype. I wish the photographers had combated it.

This book offers glimpses of the individual lives of children while it paints a portrait of the similarity of experience that children of all ages share. The photos are beautiful and the message simple - as equally appropriate for adults as for children.

"To Be A Kid" is simple text book showing how kids are the same and different. The photographs accompanying the text are rich in visual context. My three and four year olds love to look at and find the differences and similarities in each of the photos. How wonderful to find pictures of kids from six different countries all in basic clothing and doing the same things with their friends! Eight activities kids from all over the world frequently enjoy are shown in four to six brightly colored pictures for children to enjoy.

I think this is a great book to read with children of all ages. What I like best about this book is that it captures moments of children in different parts of the world doing the the same activities. Young children will see that other young children take part in the same activities and yet, not everyone does them the same way. If you want to implement diversity and multicultural literature, this will be a wonderful addition to your child's/students' library.

As with the book "Global Babies" (also from the Global Fund for Children), "To Be a Kid" offers kids a chance to see children from other cultures doing things that are universal to all people. This book is a winner and I recommend it to anyone that wants their little ones to grow up with a healthy and loving global perspective.