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If America Were a Village: A Book about the People of the United States (CitizenKid)

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When David Smith's earlier book, If the World Were a Village, was published a few years ago I was immediately captivated by the concept as well as the actual product. I've purchased several copies over the years to give to teachers and libraries, and I've recommended it to many others. So, I was glad to note the publication of If America Were a Village, and I wasn't disappointed when my copy arrived. I am a consultant to schools and now will recommend both wherever I go.

The book makes fascinating facts and figures understandable to all of us by placing them in the context of a "village" of 100 people. For example, if America were a village of 100, 5 people would have more than half of all the wealth. And the 60 poorest would share only 4 percent of the wealth. That certainly puts things in perspective for me! There are many more of these insights on everything from religion to jobs to where we live.

As an educator himself, David Smith also includes about a dozen very practical suggestions for teachers and parents "to support our children in unraveling this complex, multi-faceted" country. I'm going to make sure the children in my own world have access to this book as a tool for expanding their own international horizons by first understanding their own country. I can imagine that students in schools all over America will soon be doing worthwhile research projects with titles like "If Tulsa Were a Village." Or Wyoming. Or any community in the world.

There are more than 306 million people living in the United States today, but if you decided to statistically break down these numbers into a village of one hundred people you would see some very amazing things. For example, in that village you would see an assortment or "rainbow of colors." You would see thirteen foreign-born people, some of whom would be citizens and some not. In that number you would see Latin Americans, Europeans and one person who could come from anywhere from Oceania to Australia. Of the remaining one hundred, seventy-five of them would be white, twelve would be black and one would be Native American. In a small village of one hundred, we can easily see our differences, but can also see how alike some of us really are depending on what we look at.

In this book, depending upon which way you looked at the village of one hundred people you will discover some amazing facts. Due to the fact we are a nation based on an immigrant population you will find people from around the world living here. You will find people who live in the urban, suburban and rural areas, the percentage of people who live where and the changes that have occurred over the past one hundred years. You can take a look at the family composition, what types of people compose a household, religious practices of people, what people do (work, go to school, stay home, etc.), how old we are, how wealthy we are, what kind of "stuff" we own, our energy consumption in comparison to the rest of the world, how healthy we are, and a brief glimpse into the future.

This is an amazing book that has a lot of potential for classroom use. It is a really interesting eye-opener, a lot of fun to read and very informative. I personally enjoyed this journey through time, across the nation and world and learned a lot of interesting things I was unaware of. For example, I was stunned to learn that "each American uses, on average, each year -- about 456,000 gallons" of water! In the back of the book there is a fantastic section on "Helping our children understand America." There are many activities that can be used in the homeschool or classroom setting. In the back of the book under sources, there are additional book and website resources that can be utilized. This book is not only fun, but it is an excellent educational resource!

Written by David J. Smith and illustrated by Shelagh Armstrong, "If America Were a Village: A Book about the People of the United States" is an educational book for children ages 8-12, grades 3-7, that portrays America as if it were a village of 100 people. It shows exactly the sharp contrasts between the "haves" and "have nots" of America. In this village of 100 souls, five people have over half the wealth, 60 of the poorest people have about 4 %, and 14 people live below the poverty line. Thirteen people are under age 9, while interestingly enough, 74 people have television. "If America Were a Village" is part of an award-winning collection called CitizenKid, which is designed to deal with complicated world issues and to inspire young people to become good global citizens. Acrylic artwork by Shelagh Armstrong makes colorful splashes to illustrate the text. Another interesting area racial grouping represented and languages spoken. If America were a village (of 100 people), 82 people would speak English as their first language, 10 would speak Spanish, I speaks Chinese, 1 French and 1 German. 75 people would be white, 12 would be black, 1 is Native American and 4 are Asian, while the 8 remaining are of other races or mixtures of races. Many more fascinating details unfold to teach students more about America as a global country.

Wikipedia defines demography as "the statistical and mathematical study of the size, composition, and spatial distribution of human populations and how these features change over time." And so one can teach a new vocabulary word and concept when explaining to students how IF AMERICA WERE A VILLAGE provides a great lesson in demography.

But, more importantly, by imagining America to be a village of 100 people and then providing answers to a series of questions about the make-up of those 100 villagers, David J. Smith offers readers the invaluable opportunity to look beyond the ends of their noses and their own neighborhoods in order to get a broader and more objective view of the three-hundred-and-six-plus million people ("1 birth about every 8 seconds and one death every 12 seconds") who collectively make up these United States of America.

The questions addressed in the book include:
"Where do we come from?"
"What religions do we practice?"
"How old are we?"
"How wealthy are we?"
"How healthy are we?"

I have spent most of my life living in four places. I grew up in Plainview and Commack on Long Island; lived my years right after college in Southampton, Long Island; and have spent the second half of my life here in Sebastopol, California. Are these places like the U.S. as a whole? Not even close! Thus, many of the facts I learned from this book are as surprising to me than they will be to younger readers.

"A new immigrant arrives every 27 seconds," and "In our village of 100 about 13 are foreign-born."

For instance, like Holling Hoodhood from THE WEDNESDAY WARS, I have repeatedly lived in communities in which a large percentage of the families was Jewish. That only 1 person in our U.S. village of 100 is Jewish means that there must be vast regions of the United States where Jews are as rare as...well...as rare as the people of African descent were in the Long Island suburbs where I grew up. (Our U.S. village of 100 has 9 people of African descent.)

IF AMERICA WERE A VILLAGE continues on to provide contrasts between the demography of America and that of the rest of the world. Particularly striking are comparisons of material wealth along with the fact that our village is responsible for "21 percent of the world's total" energy consumption and that we are "the world's top users of water."

The U.S. village of 100 (which was closer to 50 when I was born) is a place that readers will understand a lot better after getting their hands on IF AMERICA WERE A VILLAGE.

If America were a Village is a logical and necessary follow on to its predessor If the World were a Villiage. While crafted as a children's book, it captures the essance of what America consists of for Americans of all ages. I think politicians, parents, grandparents and educators all should read this book to better understand the America we live in and the America we are to become in the next generation.

We all live in a microcosm of America defined by our own neighborhood and our work and family interactions. This book bridges the wide differences we have regionally and prepares all of us for the evolving cultural and political landscape before us.

As a professional investor and as a grandparent, I find the insights in this beutifully illustrated book to be as significant and valuable as my own intellect and imagination can make it. This is a book for curious learners of all ages.

The longer I live, the more I learn children are not learning what they should know at home then branch out and tie it to the world.

As a retired educator, I can only hope that todays teachers are sharing this book with their students. It is a great way to teach about over-population and its effect on our planet today.This book was introduced to me by a college professor friend of mine and she uses it in her classes. One is never too old for a childrens book.Most of everything I know today came from teaching fourth graders!

I have infinite respect for children's books that attempt to clarify concepts that are difficult for the human brain to understand. Trying to comprehend the concept of a million? There's David M. Schwartz's How Much Is a Million? to help you. A little foggy on philosophical topics like the nature of good and evil? Really, Really Big Questions by Stephen Law is the book for you. And the population of The United States of America? Look, you can lob numbers at the head of a ten-year-old all day for all the good it'll do you. Tell a child that there are 306 million people in The United States today and I'm sure they'll dutifully write down the number, but what will it really mean to them? How on earth do you get someone to understand the real statistics of their country in a fun, informative, and memorable fashion? Author and teacher David J. Smith hit upon the answer in 2002 when he wrote If the World Were a Village. The concept was simple: Reduce the population of the world to a mere 100 people in a village. With that village, Smith was able to discuss race, religion, poverty, and other topics. Now Smith is back with illustrator Shelagh Armstrong to present If America Were a Village. Same concept, but far more down-to-earth, and something that may yet penetrate the brains of the readers who pick it up. Classrooms everywhere, rejoice.

After reducing 306 million American people to a mere 100, David Smith covers all the essential topics. Ethnicity, occupations, religion, consumption, health, etc. Accompanied by thick acrylic paintings of this village of 100, kids get an in-depth look at the state of the United States today. A note at the beginning defines the terms "America" and "American" while backmatter includes suggestions for projects related to this subject, and an extensive Bibliography contains websites and primary print sources galore.

As with any book that relies on statistics, this book is only as up-to-date as the latest census poll. So with the ups and downs of the current economy, we have to be lenient if the number of villagers in this book that have slipped into poverty has gone up since this book was originally written. Interestingly, though this book is all about the numbers, there's only a small section projecting our state in the future. "By 2050, the population is predicted to be about 419 million, about one-third larger than today. If the population were shrunk to a village of 100, there would be 72 whites (including 24 Hispanics), 15 blacks, 8 Asians and 5 who identify themselves as members of other races." I suppose it makes a fair amount of sense that Smith wouldn't say much more than this. It could be problematic if any of those projections or predictions turned out to be false. It would date a book that, by dint of its very existence in time, must be dated.

Illustrator Shelagh Armstrong's style is not one that would have been my immediate first choice as a companion to this material, but I think the improves upon If the World Were a Village. In that title Armstrong was criticized for not showing enough faces of the people in the village. In this book, the villagers' faces are everywhere. You certainly have the impression that this is an active, working, contemporary village. Mind you, when Smith offers us information about the unfortunate state of health and poverty in America today, the pictures certainly do not match. Smith might be offering a complex look at the ups and downs of our country based entirely on numbers, but Armstrong seems inclined to show only the good at all times. So while many of the people in the village "live below the poverty line" (14 as of 2008), 13 people have trouble finding food, and 65 people are overweight, the accompanying images are always of happy people, sometimes with babies.

While it is possible that there are kids out there who adore statistics and will find this book fascinating, I see the potential for this title to be pretty curriculum based. Smith backs me up on this one by providing copious backmatter that will be useful to teachers who wish to do units on America, but want to try something a little different. And if teachers are hoping to pair this with another book that gives the vast scope of the world a different kind of look, consider When It's Six O'Clock in San Francisco: A Trip Through Time Zones by Cynthia Jaynes Omololu. As it stands, it's hard not to get a kick out of this book. A unique idea applied to a subject area we are all familiar with, Smith injects life into a usually dry, rote subject area. Necessary purchase, this one. For teachers, librarians, and already interested kids, anyway.