Educating children in the direction of empathy is a difficult job. Part of the freedom of being ´small´ is also a self-permission to do what it suits you, especially by affecting and sometimes restraining the freedom of the other. The survival of the fittest may suit the description of the freedom of the child, the kind of uneducated, wild freedom one is keen to use stubbornly against the Rousseau principle of freedom ending short when the freedom of someone else´s starts.
The Realm of Smaller Things is a lesson in un-learning childish cruelty. A girl is enjoying harming and torturing small things - until she is turned herself into a small creature, facing the lessons of being in the danger of being treated - although nicely in reality - similarly with the way she treats the others inhabitants of the forest. A good lessons she learned, a humanly insightful journey.
Atlanta-based children author and figurative painter Kent Knowles created a strong story to remember, particularly through the combination between the images and the text. The strong colours used for the illustration are hard to remember and in sync with the serious topics discussed. The text is short, in an accessible language for various age levels, as well as for children learning English as a second language.
The Realm of Smaller Things can be read to and by first and second grade children, a bit curious but inclined to be naughty. It offers a wide area of topics to be discussed with the children by educators and parents. It helps to educate empathy and raise awareness about how important our acts are, no matter how small we are.
Rating: 4 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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