31 Ways to Change the World by 4386 children

This is one of those activism books for kids, aged 9- 12. I like it a bit more than the other 'how to' activism for kids books out there because it isn't telling kids to fight the world's evils, it isn't telling them that the world is going to end unless they do this, and it isn't at all large-scale. Many of the suggestions in this book only immediately effect the person who is doing them and the person/ people they're interacting with. Instead of listing all of the actions I'm just going to summarize the gist of them by category.

There are a few actions that suggest how to interact with people more, like your parents or your grandmother. In general, many of the actions tell the reader to do more things with people. This is an important suggestion with the rise of technology. Kids are spending more and more of their free time alone in front of some electronic device or another, and while this is fun for them for the moment, too much of this behaviour can alienate them from their friends and family.

So in addition to the do things with people group of actions, there are the 'do things' actions. Things like playing or writing a letter, grow something and eat it, these help get kids off the couch.

Then of course there are the environmentally aware actions, but it goes about presenting this in a kid friendly way. One of these is to love your stuff, it doesn't say this, but by loving your stuff you won't rush out to buy new stuff and you'll value what you have. There are also the standard 'don't waste power' actions, but they give you some real life examples like shower time and junk mail.

There are also the 'educate yourself' actions. These suggest that you learn another language or learn about a cause to support or to bug your parents about. One of the actions is to simply ask why, which is always a good tool for learning.

Overall I think that this is one of the better elementary school aged activist books I've come across. It's short and sweet but has a lot of valuable things to say. It's also very colourful and full of pictures so is easy on the eye. What I like about this book the most is that it doesn't only talk about how to fix your environment or how to make a political or social change, it also talks about how you should make more time for the people you see everyday. How you should be more active and more social, because believe it or not those tiny and 'insignificant' interactions are what will shape your world the most and are what will determine your happiness. And if more people are happy, the world will indeed change for the better.

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen

This book was so adorable! I read it in a couple of hours, I was hooked from the first page.

It's the story about two kids, a girl and a boy, and how they feel about each other as they grow older. It was decently written and was more complex than I initially assumed it would be. At first glance this looks like your typical story of unrequited love, girl loves boy, boy wants nothing to do with girl. But the story is actually much more than this. The girl, Julie, is a headstrong, genuine person who lives her life with conviction. Hearing a summary of the book you would assume that she is some spineless, wilting heroine who feels like she needs a boy to know who she is, but she's just the opposite. The reason she goes after Bryce the way that she does is because she puts 150% into everything she does. She's a dreamer and an activist, one of those people who you meet only once in a lifetime.. if you're lucky. Bryce comes to realize this, and by getting to know her, comes to see how prejudiced and superficial he is.

The story is told by both Bryce and Julie, and they take turns telling the reader what happened chapter by chapter. And, as one might assume, the story starts off with the girl being obsessed with the boy and the boy wanting nothing to do with the girl. Since this is a romance of sorts I would assume that you would be able to fabricate the basic plot line from that information, so I won't 'spoil' it for you.

The characters go through self discovery and heartbreak. There is a theme of 'breaking free of one's old mentality' and embracing a passion for life and the main characters emphasize this transition (or the state of being if not the actual transition itself... though the moving from one state to the other is the most fascinating aspect and would be the crux of the story).

I really love finding stories like this. It's a sweet, innocent romance (in the actual sense of the word, not in the smutty sense), but with some depth to it which makes the story all the more real and palpable. You get to watch these kids grow into the people they will be. Julie is such a free spirit, though you don't quite expect this right away as Bryce starts off the first chapter, I really enjoyed her character. and Bryce gets an inner strength as he grows older that represents a real struggle for the individual's own self awareness.

The ending was somewhat unsatisfying because it kind of left the reader hanging... and it was excellent because of that. this isn't a story about dating, it's about before that happens, when you first discover love. You can tell the author did an excellent job with this because you're left wanting more, you want to know how it will end. We as the western audience we are crave the 'honeymoon' phase, even if it means destroying true love just to have somewhere to start all over again. This book gives the reader hints of the honeymoon phase, but doesn't go into it, leaves the reader at the cusp of what could be.

Much more amazing than I initially assumed it would be, this book is great and I recommend it.

Something Beautiful by Sharon Dennis Wyeth

This story teaches kids that they have the power to create their own beauty and bring it to their lives. The girl in this book walk around her house and sees some not very nice things, including some not so nice graffiti on a door, and the reader gets a sense of her unease. Then she goes to school and her teacher teaches the class the word beautiful, which is described as something, when you have it, that makes your heart happy. So she goes around the neighbourhood asking people what is beautiful to them, and various responses are given. Finally the little girl goes back to the graffiti and erases it, making a bit of beauty come into her own world. after that it ends on a sweet note with her mother. 

I think this a good book to read to a child to teach them that they have the power to make a positive change in the world, and that for every cloudy day there is an optimistic sun hiding unseen that is capable of showing itself to those who look for it.

What Right?: Graphic Interpretations Against Censorship by Robin Fisher

This is a collection of graphic interpretations on how censorship does nothing beneficial for society. It discusses mostly the censorship of books and ideas through that medium, but some of the comics just deal with the censorship of ideas themselves, or the way in which ideas are expressed. Overall I'd say it's a good collection of comic strips speaking against censorship. 

 

Most Loved in All the World: A Story of Freedom by Tonya Hegamin

This was such a good story. I just flipped through it with the intention of putting it down, but it was really touching. It is a story about a girl and her mother, both of which are slaves at the time of the black slave trade, and the story is told through the eyes of the girl, who is very young and doesn't really grasp the reality of the situation. She just knows that her mother works hard in the fields and that she helps her by rubbing some salve in them at night. Her mother makes quilt patches throughout the story and at the end makes a quilt for her daughter. The story ends with the mother giving the daughter to group of people in the underground railroad so that she'll maybe have a better life somewhere else. It was pretty sad, but good.

The Streets Are Free by Kurusa

This was a cute book about some kids who live in this city that keeps growing leaving them with no where to play, so they play in the streets. People get mad at them for getting in the way on the street so they yell back 'but the streets are free'. But the adults dont listen, so the kids take their problem to city hall, and the mayor ultimately does nothing after promising to build them a playground. So the kids come together and inspire the community to come together to build the playground. It's a nice little story about fighting for what you want and what is important to you, in a realistic setting. It's cute.