A School Like Mine

I am usually dubious about books that claim to tell the story of ‘real’ children’s lives around the world. It is too easy to get sucked into stereotyping or, worse, into adapting authentic voices so that they no longer ring true. However, this beautiful book does seem to be the real deal. Claiming, rightly, to be ‘a unique celebration of schools around the world’, it is packed with the stories and commissioned photography of children around the world, from Botswana to East Timor, telling of their experiences at school. The stories have been well chosen for the breadth of experience, and are a gripping glimpse into children’s lives, with all their similarities and differences. For example, we meet Jiyu from China whose class spend its morning and afternoon breaks doing eye exercises; Alexei, the son of a Nenet reindeer herder from Russia, who goes to boarding school for nine months of the year, and Maria from the Peruvian Andes who learns about tending crops and animals as part of her curriculum. This is a fascinating book, produced in association with UNICEF (for every copy sold, a percentage of the cover price is donated to UNICEF to buy ‘School-in-a-box’ kits). Highly recommended.