[nonfiction monday] Healthy Kids

Healthy Kids
by?Maya Ajmera,?Victoria Dunning, and Cynthia Pon
A Global Fund for Children Book, Charlesbridge,?2013

The books I’ve seen that Charlesbridge has done with the Global Fund for Children?just blow me away. The photos are full of such joy, and they create an awareness of kids’ lives around the world. This one, Healthy Kids, features a short statement on each page or spread, like, “We exercise and play all kinds of sports,” or “We wear seat belts on the road, and helmets when we bike or scoot.” Then three or four images per spread illustrate the different ways kids around the world do that. From an infant getting examined in Uzbekistan to kids playing rugby (I think) in Australia, to a child in Nigeria under a mosquito sleeping net, we see lots of examples of happy kids staying safe and healthy in many different ways. Then back matter offers a bit more detail about the basic needs of kids everywhere. This is a perfect picture book to spark conversations about health and safety, but also cultural differences and similarities.

Extension activities:

• Make your own Healthy Kids book in your classroom! Copy statements from the book and display them on walls. Brainstorm with the kids the various ways they accomplish each thing. Then let them draw pictures or bring in photos or write stories and poems to demonstrate each area. You could also have each child create an individual book, depending on how big of a project you want to make this.
• The need for clean water is covered in both the text and the back matter. Pair this book with All the Water in the World for a beautiful look at the water cycle and why clean water and conserving water are so important! (I blogged about All the Water here.)

Lisa at Shelf-employed has the Nonfiction Monday roundup! Go learn something cool!

[review copy of Healthy Kids?provided by the publisher]