FOR EVERY CHILD

It’s always good to know your rights, especially if you are one of the vulnerable, and this picture book takes the elemental human rights of children, agreed upon by a United Nations convention in 1989, and holds them high for children to see. A number of the convention’s provisions have been selected, put into simple English, and illustrated by artwork from a company of well-known children’s-book illustrators. Readers might wish that Castle’s rendition of the convention’s principles read less like a fusion of Mother Goose and Miranda Rights, but the specific rights are clear: freedom, protection, dignity, equality, and happiness. And it is certainly something to hold these rights up to the light of day and see how many are woven into the fabric of our society: health services? non-discrimination? protection from abusive parents? There’s some work to be done. Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes a foreword that ought to make all readers pause a moment at the incredible degree of inhumanity that characterized the 20th century. But most of all it is just important for kids to know they have rights recognized by the United Nations. Aftermatter includes a short paragraph on each illustrator and information about the medium used by each. The full text of each featured right completes the package. (Picture book. All ages)