Slowly Changing The World
Written: Sep 28 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Beautiful artwork, interesting choices of people included.
Cons: Editing out of information about these heroes seems unnecessary.
The Bottom Line: This would be a nice gift for any child, and for those who are collectors of beautifully illustrated children's books.
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| hadassahchana's Full Review: Jane Breskin Zalben - Paths to Peace: People Who C... |
Paths To Peace: People Who Changed The World, by Jane Breskin Zalben
This is a wonderful little book of brief biographies of famous people whose lives have profoundly impacted our world. Featured are religious leaders and writers, politicians and scientists, and even children. 16 people are included:
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Mahatma Gandhi
Albert Einstein
Eleanor Roosevelt
Ralph Bunche
Mother Teresa
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Anwar El-Sadat
Cesar Chavez
Elie Wiesel
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Anne Frank
The Dalai Lama
Wangari Maathai
Aung San Suu Kyi
This book is recommended for children in grades 4-8. I read this book with my 12 year old, and he liked it very much. Although he is at a much higher reading level, he really enjoyed the stories of these people. While most were familiar to him, he learned some new names, like Wangari Maathai, the winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. I found this book an excellent starting point for some interesting discussions with all of my boys including my eldest, who's in university. My youngest son recognized the name of Aung San Suu Kyi from reading the news from Myanmar this week, and he was pleased that he could explain who she was to a friend who was visiting.
The artwork in this book is extraordinary, and is what takes this from being a book of short bios to being a child's first coffee table book. Each biography is accompanied by collages made from various handmade papers, interesting textiles and even collector's stamps all relating to the famous person. Breskin Zalben has been collecting these items during her travels over many years and uses them to stunning effect.
Each section consists of an inspiring quotation from the famous person, their biography and the surrounding art. Some of the art nearly leaps from the page. Eleanor Roosevelt's collage features a cactus in full bloom. Sadat's page features the words "Peace", "Shalom" and "Salam" in the collage. Martin Luther King's illustration includes a tiny white Baptist church in a dark sky combined with newspaper clippings from the Birmingham boycott. Princess Diana's looks like a sweet hand-made Valentine with a stamp in honour of HRH Prince William on his 21st birthday. Elie Wiesel's page is particularly haunting - a stark black background, a concrete bunker surrounded by barbed wire in the foreground and a small flower forcing its way through bare soil tucked into a corner. The ray of hope on this page is the quote from Wiesel:
"Peace is not God's gift to his creatures,
it is our gift to each other."
Because of the restrictions imposed by space as well as by the age of the target audience, the biographies are short. Some of the information omitted would make the book less consistently cheerful but would show these people in a more human light. For example, Anwar El-Sadat is included because of his historic efforts to make peace with Israel, yet his assassination at the hands of his own army is not mentioned. I didn't like that aspect of this book. I don't believe it would have distracted from the primary goal of the book to include more information about the effect of a person's attempts to bring peace to our world. Although I understand the author's intention, I believe that excluding references to the pain and hard work each of these people endured in order to make a difference does a disservice to children reading this book. However, this is a minor quibble with a book I like very much. This is a book meant to inspire and to give children a reason to be optimistic about our world. It shows children that anyone can make a difference. I'll be buying another copy of this book for my own children, and most likely will keep a spare on hand as a gift.
The title of this review is taken from the quote on Anne Frank's page. And since this review is another entry in the Fight Illiteracy Write Off, I'll close with the inspiring quote the author chose to begin her book, from the Dalai Lama's daily prayers:
"For as long as space endures,
And for as long as living beings remain,
Until then may I too abide
To dispel the misery of the world."
Recommended:
Yes
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hadassahchana
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