Little bit of translation awkwardness.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child presented in kid-accessible language with engaging illustrations.

This book tells and shows in simple words and pictures what all children should have a right to, regardless of where they live, their gifts and their struggles, their religion, their race, or anything else. It is based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child that was adopted by the United Nations in 1989, and was adopted by almost all the United Nations' countries at the time.

A book for all ages.

Beautiful book highlighting the rights of children varying from protection, free schooling and safety from harm. Again, not sure who the audience is, though. Interestingly enough, the Author's Note in the back reveals that the U.S. hasn't agreed to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that 193 other countries such as Haiti and Cameroon have. What's up with that?

Oooh boy, mixed feelings on this one. Definitely be mindful of the child with whom you might share this.

This is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child written so kids can understand! Great information at the end of the book for extension and a list of countries who are party to the Convention. It’s a shame the Is is not involved. Gorgeous pictures, also!!

Former President of the United States Jimmy Carter says in his book, A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power that the biggest reason women don't pursue their human rights is because they don't know them. And once women and children do know their rights, they pursue them immediately.

Which begs the question: do all the children in your circle know their human rights? Why not ensure they do by giving this picture book and others like it as a baby shower gift? While there are other picture books on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, I can't figure out why this is the only picture book about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Why is that? Shouldn't every child in the world have a book that teaches them about a human rights convention pertaining solely to children? Even children in the United States whose government won't sign the convention?

As a USA citizen, it's easy to see why our government hasn't signed this treaty that the world's diplomats got together and created to make sure that children's rights, IN PARTICULAR, are protected. Apparently, one of the rights signatories promise children in their countries is the right to health care (the USA refuses to deliver that to all of its children). Also, the right not to be separated from one's parents (the USA is currently separating children from their parents at the border on a daily basis and keeping refugee children in cages), the right to a first and last name (the USA is currently keeping inadequate records on all of the children separated from their parents at the border so that children's names are lost and parents and children can't be reunited.

I'm glad that other countries do believe in these rights for their youngest citizens. Maybe someday, the USA will too. I'm not holding my breath.

I noticed on YouTube that there are multiple translations of this book. I would only buy the version that has been translated by Helen Mixter. The other translations have some interpretations that don't make sense.

Citations:

Children not being able to keep their own names, also separated from their own families never to be reunited https://www.politicususa.com/2019/02/03/feds-thousands-of-separated-migrant-children-will-never-be-reunited.html

4.3 million American children without health care in 2018: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/09/uninsured-rate-for-children-in-2018.html

I Have the Right to Save My Planet had some great facts pointed out along with hope for change involving the future generations on our planet. There were some problematic lines and the story didn’t flow naturally, however, it was from a child’s point of view and it involved children being encouraged to take action towards the betterment of the planet. So this book has potential with the story but it’s not quite where I would hope for it to be specifically in the illustration department.

It’s upsetting that we’re leaving these burdens on the shoulders of our youth so this book needs to provide solutions instead of facts about how humanity is destroying our one and only planet. These solutions NEED to show children participating in those actions instead of laying around in nature giving the impression that someone else will take care of it.

The illustrations don’t really add to the severity of the topics discussed aside from the visual of the whale with plastic inside of it. There are very few visuals actually showing children doing much to bring about these changes. We need to visually normalize these changes expected of our youth. Show illustrations of children cleaning up litter at a park or telling a parent not to litter, show a child at a grocery store gathering veggies in a reusable mesh bag, show a child turning their food waste into compost, show children making food from scratch with a parent, or show a child thinking about recycling something like a jar and how they could repurpose that jar to use for something else. There are so many ideas that could be presented visually in this book for children to easily participate in on a daily basis.

The message was there, the hope and dream of a better world was there but many of these issues are out of the control of children right now so provide them with the changes they can make now so that they can contribute to the changes they will need to provide in their future.

I don’t believe the illustrations compliment the story well enough for me to recommend this book and those visuals really take away from the importance of the message in this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and House of Anansi Press Inc for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Powerful and accessible way to teach kids about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Would pair well with [b:Every Human Has Rights: A Photographic Declaration for Kids|6070906|Every Human Has Rights A Photographic Declaration for Kids|National Geographic Society|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320535170s/6070906.jpg|6247372] in a unit on human rights and social justice. A valuable addition to school libraries.