3 February 2013 PEACE by Wendy Anderson Halperin, Atheneum, January 2013, 40p., ISBN: 978-0-689-82552-1

 

"As I walk through

This wicked world

Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity

I ask myself

Is all hope gone?

Is there only pain and hatred and misery?

And each time I feel like this inside

There's one thing I want to know:

What's so funny 'bout peace love and understanding?"

-- Nick Lowe

 

"Peace begins with a smile."

-- Mother Teresa

 

I am sitting here, smiling, patiently waiting for a couple of my young adult friends to finish poring over this remarkable book so that I can write about it...

 

...Still waiting. Still smiling. There is just so much to look at and read and ponder and share in this book that is crafted from a mixture of hundreds of images, a multitude of philosophical quotations by well-known and not-so-well-known people, and a poem about finding peace that ties it all together.

 

Here is a list of those whose words are shared in the book

Jeremy Aldana

Maya Angelou

Kofi A. Annan

Carol Bellamy

Paul Bennett

Buddha

Leo F. Buscaglia

Albert Camus

Jimmy Carter

Roberto Clemente

Winston Churchill

Confucius

Dali Lama

Tony DeLiso

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Wayne W. Dyer

Albert Einstein

Epictetus

Adolfo Perez Esquivel

William Faulkner

Beverly Flanigan

Anne Frank

Robert Fulghum

Gandhi

Maha Ghosananda

Kahlil Gibran

Whoopi Goldberg

Emma Goldman

Ernest Hemingway

Jimi Hendrix

Etty Hillesum

Daisuku Ikeda

Gerald G. Jampolsky

Kalu 'N Kalu

John F. Kennedy

Kathleen Vande Kieft

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Brian Koslow

Lao Tzu

Abraham Lincoln

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Wangari Maathai

Donzella Michele Malone

Nelson Mandela

Horace Mann

Margaret Mead

Raul Midon

Mother Teresa

Peace Pilgrim

Pope John Paul II

Plato

Archbishop Oscar Romero

Albert Schweitzer

William Shakespeare

Robert Alan Silverstein

Lewis B. Smedes

Meryl Streep

Thich Nhat Hanh

Rigoberta Menchu Tum

Desmond Tutu

Mark Twain

Frank Tyger

Neale Donald Walsch

Walt Whitman

 

Wendy Anderson Halperin's spreads here are made up of watercolor and pencil illustrations of people, creatures, plants, and settings from all over the planet.  They are very child-friendly. Any four year-old will have a great time looking through all of the pictures. But, as you might sense from the list of those quoted, this is a philosophy book that can as easily be employed in high school AP classes as it can be shared with third and fourth graders.

 

One of the many things I really like here, having now gone through the book a bunch of times, is that there are parallel situations depicted in the images that advocate for the right way to conduct oneself. For instance, in one image, early in the book, an old guy with a cane is standing on a crowded train. Later in the book, in a repetition of that scene, we see that a young boy has given up his seat for the old guy. Early in the book, we see two kids tussling over something. Later in the book, in a repetition of that scene, we see a third kid mediating the situation. Early in the book, we see a boy watching as -- unbeknownst to the driver -- a couple of sacks fall from the back of his bicycle-propelled cart. Later in the book, we see that the boy has stopped the driver and is helping reload the fallen sacks. Again and again, those who take their time with this book will be rewarded with these lessons in right living.

 

"In serving the best interests of children, we will serve the best interests of all humanity."

-- Carol Bellamy

 

My gosh! I haven't heard Carol Bellamy's name in a while. I knew all about her when I was a teenager on Long Island and she was in New York City politics. There is just so much brain- and heart-power here, so many ideas that are ripe for exploration and contemplation.

 

PEACE is an absolutely beautiful book about finding peace in our world, in our countries, in our cities, in our schools, in our neighborhoods, in our homes, and in our hearts.

 

Peace, out!

 

Richie Partington, MLIS
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