{"id":5370,"date":"2021-06-27T00:01:12","date_gmt":"2021-06-27T06:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5370"},"modified":"2021-06-26T17:23:19","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T23:23:19","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-749-featuring-aaron-cushley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=5370","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #749: Featuring Aaron Cushley"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\nLast time I checked, there were more than 7.5 billion people on planet Earth. It can be difficult, with such a huge number on such a huge scale, to think about what life is like for others \u2014 but not when you do some math and shrink that number to 100 (which has certainly been done before, such as here<\/a><\/strong> and here<\/a><\/strong>). This is the idea behind If the World Were 100 People: A Visual Guide to Our Global Village<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (Crown Books), written by Jackie McCann, illustrated by Aaron Cushley<\/a><\/strong>, and coming to shelves in July. <\/p>\n

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Or as McCann puts it in the opening of this book, whose sources (all online) are listed on the title page spread: “It’s tricky to picture 8,000,000,000 people, so instead, let’s imagine the whole planet is a village where 100 people live.” Each person, the book explains, represents “80 million people (more or less) in the real world. … If we focus on 100 people, it’s easier to see the things we have in common and the things that make us different.” <\/p>\n

So, in using these percentages, we read that 50 people are female and 50, male. We read about where people live on the globe (there’s just one person in Oceania); how many have a safe home (20 do not); how many can read or write (86 of them); how many have enough food to eat and how many have “clean water that they can drink or use anytime”; how many have access to electricity; and much more. As you can see, this can be eye-opening content for more economically privileged children across the globe who don’t have to think about where their next meal will come from and for whom something like electricity is a given. There’s even an eye-opening spread about the distribution of wealth across the globe. (“In our village, a few people have almost ALL the wealth in the world. That’s because these things aren’t shared equally and some people have so much more than others. …”) <\/p>\n

The book’s final spread closes with “big questions” and asks readers to consider what life will look like in 2050. How can we reduce food waste, we are asked, and “improve the way we share the food we have?” Where will the world’s energy come from? How can we ensure eldery people are taken care of? It’s a lot to chew on \u2014 but are questions worth asking in order to get children thinking about how we can make change for the better. <\/p>\n

Below are a few spreads from this engaginge piece of nonfiction, which is especially perfect for budding sociologists and mathematicians. Aaron Cushley does a fine job of keeping these busy spreads easy on the eyes; it’d be tempting to visually clutter up things here, but his composition choices throughout the book are excellent ones. I love, for instance, his way of illustrating the “Do you have a place to call home?” spread, pictured below. …
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“How different are we? Take a good look at your friends \u2014 do they look like you or
are they different? Everyone on the planet is completely unique.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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“Do you have a place to call home? Whether you live in a town house, a single family home, a log cabin in the woods, an apartment, a clay hut, or a wooden house on stilts, most people have somewhere to live. But not everyone in our village is so lucky.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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“Is there enough food to go around? We have enough food on the planet to feed everyone, but it isn\u2019t divided equally and not everyone is well fed. Most people have plenty to eat, but others do not and sometimes they are very hungry.”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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“Do you use a computer or watch TV? What do these activities have in common?
Both use electricity! Electricity is a type of energy, and most of the energy we use every day and rely upon comes from fossil fuels. But does everyone have access to it?”<\/em>
(Click spread to enlarge and read text in its entirety)<\/center>
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(Click cover to enlarge)<\/em><\/center>
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\nIF THE WORLD WERE 100 PEOPLE. Text copyright \u00a9 2021 by Egmont Books UK Ltd. Cover art and interior illustrations copyright \u00a9 2021 by Aaron Cushley and reproduced by permission of the publisher, Crown Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books.<\/em><\/p>\n

* * * Jules’s Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
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Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome.<\/p>\n

1)<\/strong><\/font> The 2021 Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards<\/a><\/strong> were announced this past week! Such great choices. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> My daughters’ talented friends and seeing them in action. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> Seeing compassionate, supportive parenting on display in my extended family. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> I made it to a pool for the first time this summer … <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> … because work finally slowed down a bit. <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> Owl House<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, season two!<\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> Summerween<\/a><\/strong> plans. <\/p>\n

What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Last time I checked, there were more than 7.5 billion people on planet Earth. It can be difficult, with such a huge number on such a huge scale, to think about what life is like for others \u2014 but not when you do some math and shrink that number to 100 (which has certainly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,26,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-nonfiction","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}