Children in various countries around the world share stories about the similarities in their lives, despite their many differences. Author Susan Hughes groups their conversations around nine different themes: communication, love and protection, shelter, learning, eating, helping our families, community, playing, and dreaming. Sophie Casson’s limited-palette illustrations are evocative and sometimes playful as they depict scenes from the children’s daily lives.
For each topic, children in several different countries offer a few sentences about their own experiences, without passing judgment on the others. For “communication,” for example, children each share what their first words were; for “shelter,” a different set of children share what they like best about their homes. Sometimes the answers are happily mundane details of daily life; other times, they hint at larger stories and events, such as when one child explains that they live with their siblings, parents, grandfather, and another child whose became part of the family when her mother died. “I know Mercy still really misses her mom and dad, but Grandpa’s stories always make her laugh. Our family takes good care of us,” the first child says. In another vignette, a child explains, “I live in Pakistan, but my dad works in Saudi Arabia doing construction. He makes more money for our family there than here, but he misses us. I miss him, too.”
One family has two dads; others have a mom and dad, single parents, or other family configurations.Back matter includes two pages of selected sources and suggestions for further reading.
At 64 pages, and touching on topics like fleeing from war and financial insecurity, this is best for the older end of the picture-book age range, but is a thoughtful, well-researched volume that offers a needed, compassionate, global perspective.
