Product Description
There are currently more than six billion people on the planet! This enormous number can be difficult to grasp, especially for a child. But what if we imagine the whole world as a village of just 100 people? In this village * 22 people speak a Chinese dialect * 20 earn less than a dollar a day * 32 are of Christian faith * 17 cannot read or write * 39 are under 19 years old In a time when parents and educators are looking to help children gain a better understanding of the world's peoples and their ways of life, If the World Were a Village offers a unique and objective resource. By exploring the lives of the 100 villagers, children will discover that life in other nations is often very different from their own. The shrunk-down statistics -- some surprising, some shocking -- and David Smith's tips on building "world-mindedness" will encourage readers to embrace the bigger picture and help them to establish their own place in the global village.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 25 reviews)

Absolutely Global

This book should be in every school in the world! As the earth gets smaller, our children need to be taught where they will fit into the world. For them it is not just about where they will fit into thier tiny communiy. Their future will include all the earth's people as their community.
Author, David Smith, provides an in school program designed around his book.
He brings this global book to life for the children. You cannot help but wonder the impact his program and book will have on the future of our children and our world.

December 14, 2007

Great Book for Kids

This book was great for my class. It really helped them to grasp the idea of people living differently then themselves. They are 4 - 6 years old so they did not understand all of it, but they enjoyed the idea of a global village.
September 22, 2007

World Population to Double 5 times?

It's great concept with equally beautiful illustrations. Unfortunately, Smith says that a village of 100 today will be a village of 200 in just fifty years. He continues this pattern until he asserts that a village of 100 today will be a village of 1600 people in just 250 years. He is suggesting that world population will double 5 times in the next 250 years? That means that our world population of 6 billion today will soon be an astounding 96 billion! That's strange because the United Nations, Green Peace, and the World Health Organization all predict that world population will top out at about 10 billion in the next 200 years. That's not even one doubling of our current population. Where in the world did David J. Smith get the idea that the world population will double 5 times? More to the point, what is he doing filling the minds of children with these Draconian predictions. Unconscionable.
May 08, 2007

Making It Real

This book takes all the global statistics with big numbers - millions, billions - and puts them in real human terms. By comparing the world to a village of 100 people, we all can understand our place in the world's many varied cultures, looking at religion, economics, education, energy use and more. It's also sobering for Americans to see their impact on the world. As a teacher, this is a great reference book for me. The bright, colorful illustrations are a visual delight.
February 21, 2007

Excellent Classroom Teaching Tool

I use this book in my AP Human Geography course for sophomore, junior, and senior high school students to help introduce them to the global perspective and unequal distribution. The concept of world population is difficult to grasp using numbers in the millions and billions of people and The Global Village concept brings the message into an comprehensible form. This is a must-have for the social studies classroom.
February 16, 2007

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