“… the next time you search the hands ticking around a clock, maybe try and imagine what children in other places are doing. We might not all have our mornings and evenings at the same time – but we all share the same sun, and live under the same sky.”
I feel like I have been juggling time zones my whole life. I grew up in Cyprus and Germany, my sister lived much of her life in Australia, my parents live in Spain and I have friends around the globe. The life of a military child. I am proud to be European and a global citizen.
I want my children to understand how children around the world are all the same in many ways and that the ways in which we are different should be accepted, understood, celebrated.
This beautiful book
From Quarto Kids
Written by Ben Lerwill and illustrated by Alette Straathof
Shows eleven different children around the world in One Moment In Time
We see Javier eating breakfast in Mexico at the same time as Esther in Ghana is eating her lunch. In that exact same moment Lucas is having a maths lesson in Brazil while Yusuf is borrowing a book from the library in Turkey. This is a wonderful book for introducing the idea of time zones and time differences to children. There is a lovely author’s note explaining that our amazing planet is always turning, bringing day and night to different parts of the world. Through the pages of this book young readers can travel around the globe to different countries on different continents. It would be lovely for children to locate the counties on a globe or map, and find out a little about each place. My little bookworms have loved comparing their meals to those of the children in the book. It has made us want to try breakfast foods from around the world. Each double page spread features a different child from a different country in a different setting, their home, school, library, an outside space. There is a little information with each spread and also a question. In the hills in India we see Meera flying a kite and the information and question are about the weather. How does the weather where we live compare to the weather in India? The illustrations are bright and colourful and full of details to get children talking.
We have loved exploring every page and looking at all the details in the pictures. We have been able to talk about our life and compare and contrast it to the children in the book. We have talked about what we have in our homes, our hobbies and past times, our daily routines, family make up and so much more. This is a wonderful book about time, about how the Earth moves to create day and night, years and seasons. This is a great book that can be used when exploring time in maths, when thinking about children around the world and learning about different countries and continents. This is a fabulous conversation starter with little readers about children around the world . It is also just a lovely book to leaf through and talk about the gorgeous artwork.
One to make you stop and think about how amazing our world is.
We were sent a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review