Richie's Picks: EVERY HUMAN HAS RIGHTS: A PHOTOGRAPHIC DECLARATION FOR KIDS,
National Geographic, 2009, 48p., ISBN: 978-1-4263-0510-8
"I'm free -- I'm free,
And freedom tastes of reality!
I'm free -- I'm free,
And I'm waiting for you to follow me."
-- The Who
THE GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS lists the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights as the Most Translated Document in the world. I have certainly heard
about it before, but it is a document that I don't recall having ever read.
"1. All humans are born free with the same dignity and rights."
Drawing on the somber lessons of World War II, a United Nations Commission
on Human Rights chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt worked to draft a Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. In honor of the 60th anniversary of the United
Nation's adoption of the Declaration, National Geographic has crafted a beautiful
photograph-filled book that introduces readers to this set of human
entitlements. In it, they have restated/summarized each of the thirty Articles
that
make up the Declaration in a manner that provides the essence of each and can
be far more easily digested by readers. In my first read through the book,
I simply read these boldly-printed restatements and noted the single-word
concepts and the photographs that accompany each one. The brevity achieved by
the restatements/summarizations result in a set of rights that read as fresh,
relevant, progressive, and commonsensical.
"5. Nobody has the right to torture you, bully you, or punish you too
severely."
"22. You have the right to get help from your government if you are out of
work, sick, disabled, old, or can't make enough money to live on for any other
reason."
Reading through the book for the second time, I absorbed the captions (in
lighter print) for each illustration. The captions provide facts about the
rights that are enjoyed by or withheld from people in various nations around the
world (including, in some instances, my own).
For instance, a stark photo of a crudely-built, empty swing is accompanied
by the caption, "All over the world, unfair arrests break up families."
Also incorporated into the book are a number of topical poems that come from
the ePals community; an introduction by Mary Robinson, the former UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights; and a two-page, full-text spread of the complete
Declaration as adopted.
"And there but for fortune, may go you or I."
--Phil Ochs
Whether one reads every poem and caption or simply wanders through this
eye-catching photographic declaration to consider and savor the rights that are
our birthright as members of the human community, EVERY HUMAN HAS RIGHTS will
leave a lasting impression on readers of all ages.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks _http://richiespicks.com_ (http://richiespicks.com/)
Moderator, _http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/_
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/)
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
_http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks_ (http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks)
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