Rights of the Child: Social Justice Book List #5

The United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child which consists of 54 articles and two optional protocols helps guide UNICEF (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) in its mandate to protect the rights of children.   This extensive document which can be accessed at http://www.unicef.org/crc/ is a set of minimum entitlements and freedoms that should be respected by all governments.  Some of these rights include the following:

• parental guidance;
• survival and development;
• identity;
• freedom of expression;
• privacy;
• protection from violence;
• health and treatment;
• social services;
• education;
• leisure, play and culture;
• adequate standard of living; and
• freedom from exploitation.

While many books demonstrate children's rights, the books listed below have a significant focus on these rights.

Picture Books

The Flute
by Rachna Gilmore
Illustrated by Pulak Biswas
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
32 pp.
Ages 3-7
2011 

Gift Days
by Kari-Lynn Winters
Illustrated by Stephen Taylor
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
32 pp.
Ages 7+
2012

The Little Yellow Bottle
by Angèle Delaunois
Illustrated by Christie Delezzen
Second Story Press
24 pp.
Ages 6-19
2011

The Roses in My Carpets
by Rukhsana Khan
Illustrated by Ronald Himler
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
32 pp.
Ages 7-9
2004

Fiction

Alexandria of Africa

by Eric Walters

Doubleday Canada/Random House Canada

200 pp.

Ages 10-14

2008

    

 All Good Children

by Catherine Austen

Orca Book Publishers
300 pp.
Ages 14+
2011

Chanda's Secrets

by Allan Stratton

Annick Press

193 pp.

Ages 12-15

2004

Dear Jo: The Story of Losing Leah...and Searching for Hope

by Christina Kilbourne

Lobster Press

188 pp.

Ages 10-15

2007

Factory Girl

by Barbara Greenwood

Kids Can Press

136 pp.

Ages 9-14

2007

The Paper House

by Lois Peterson

Orca Book Publishers

108 pp.

Ages 8-11

2012

The Tiffin

by Mahtab Narsimhan

Dancing Cat Books

190 pp.

AGes 9-12

2011

Wanting Mor

by Rukhsana Khan

Groundwood Books

192 pp.

Ages 10-14

2009

Watching Jimmy

by Nancy Hartry

Tundra Books

144 pp.

Ages 10-14

2009

Non-Fiction

Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees
by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood Books
128 pp.
Ages 10 and up
2009
 

Dangerous Crossings!: Ten Daring Treks Across Land, Sea, and Air 
by Antonia Banyard
Annick Press
146 pp.
Ages 10-13
2007

If You Could Wear My Sneakers! : A Book about Children’s Rights
by Sheree Fitch
Illustrated by Darcia Labrosse
Doubleday Canada
32 pp.
Ages 8-11
1997

I Have the Right to Be a Child
by Alain Serres
Illustrated by Aurélia Fronty
Translated by Helen Bixter
Groundwood Books
48 pp.
Ages 4-7
2012

Last Airlift: A Vietnamese Orphan’s Rescue from War
by Marsha Skrypuch
Pajama Press
99 pp.
Ages 10-15
2011

Mimi's Village and How Basic Health Care Transformed It
by Katie Smith Milway
Illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes
Kids Can Press
32 pp.
Ages 8-11
2012

Our Stories, Our Songs: African Children Talk about AIDS
by Deborah Ellis

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

104 pp.

Ages 12+

2005

Shannen and the Dream for a School
by Janet Wilson
Second Story Press

206 pp.

Ages 8+
2011

SOS: Stories of Survival: True Tales of Disaster, Tragedy, and Courage
by Ed Butts
Tundra Books
120 pp.
Ages 9-12
2007 

This Child, Every Child: A Book About the World's Children
by David J. Smith
Kids Can Press
36 pp.
Ages 9-12
2011

When I Get Older: The Story Behind “Wavin’ Flag”
by K'NAAN and Sol Sol
Illustrated by Rudy Gutierrez
Tundra Books
32 pp.
Ages 6+
2012

When Children Play: The Story of Right to Play
by Gina McMurchy-Barber
Fitzhenry & Whiteside
48 pp.
Ages 10+
2013

The Paper House

by Lois Peterson
Orca Book Publishers
978-1-4598-0051-9
108 pp.
Ages 8-11
2012

Safiyah's ten years of life have been fraught with many hardships and tragedies.  She and her grandmother, Cucu, live in slums of Kibera outside of Nairobi, Kenya.  Her parents have both passed, her mother from AIDS, and now Cucu is ill and coughing up blood.  Fearful of losing the only family she has, and far away from her birth place, where the failure of the crops forced them to Kibera, Safiyah is determined to make improvements to their hut by repairing the holes that let the smoke and cold night air in.  In her daily scavenges of the dump, where she usually excavates those items which she can sell, Safiyah gathers old magazines with their glossy pictures of beautiful women, glamourous homes, fancy cars, and unfamiliar lives, hoping to use the paper to chink the cracks.

After repairing the walls, Safiyah selects magazine pictures to decorate the outside of the hut, using the scissors and paste shared from her friend Pendo's school.  The magazines are coveted by others, including young Chidi who tries to steal the magazines from her in the dump.  Fortunately for Safiyah, the infamous red-hair-dyed gang leader, Blade, comes to her rescue several times, while ensuring his cousin Chidi attends school regularly.  Although Cucu is vehement that Safiyah stay away from Blade a.k.a. Rasul, Safiyah reveals to him her fears for her grandmother's health.

This innocent admission to Rasul and her engagement with Pendo in the decoration of the house walls bring Safiyah to reognizing the efforts she must make in order to enrich her life with others.  As Cucu has reminded her, "Words are easy. Friendship is hard."  By embracing the help of others, without demeaning their efforts, Safiyah gets medical help for her grandmother and creates a work of art on the walls of their hut that brings even more blessings.

Safiyah's story of The Paper House demonstrates that, though the lives of children may be different, everyone has a way to connect with others and can benefit from these connections.  Safiyah learns that not everyone is as poor as they are but this is a lesson she needs to understand to elicit assistance.  Furthermore, although Rasul's family is obviously far wealthier than Safiyah's, the loss of Rasul's sister and the necessity for Chidi to become part of a new family indicate that anyone can experience tragedies and hardships.  With The Paper House, Safiyah makes her own luck, achieving a dream she believed impossible to attain, while endeavouring to improve the lives of others.

While I was not always sympathetic to Safiyah's reactions when she was upset (e.g., chastisizing Pendo for pasting the pictures on wrong when her friend only wanted to help), I cannot imagine the breadth of disappointment, fear, and unhappiness which pervades her responses.  Lois Peterson provides Safiyah with the demeanour of a child who must endure life, not embrace it, and so Saffy's less-than-considerate attitude may be more authentic even if less desirable.

The Paper House is a perfect read for sharing the lives of children in different parts of the world and providing a foundation of empathy upon which the supporting walls of understanding and caring can be built.