Recess is wholly transformed when Omeed holds up an orange and asks one question: “What if this were the world?”
Ms. Lee’s class had come perilously close to running out of games, but the hunt for the best world gains steam right away. The orange is tasty, but too small to share. A dodgeball world can be punted to outer space by a mean older kid. A maple tree isn’t portable enough.
Imaginations have never been so alive. But still no perfect world turns up, and the kids’ search is leaving a trail of litter and destruction behind them. Maybe there really is only one world that ticks all the boxes, only one world where everyone fits and can get what they need… and maybe it’s time to treat it a little better.
With a cast of big personalities and a hearty helping of witty banter, If This Were the World reads like the very best recess, with a well-earned nod to our planet and the work of protecting it.---from the publisher
40 pages 978-0823457199 Ages 5-8
Keywords: school story, games, play, imagination, fun, humor, recycling, environmental stewardship, conservation, Earth Day, 5 year old, 6 year old, 7 year old, 8 year old
Editor's note: This would be a great story to read along with Banana Express. Both give our children a new perspective on the global community and our planet.
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Collaborative recreation yields lessons about collective responsibility in this generative story. After Ms. Lee’s class runs out of imagined games on the 138th day of school, a student pulls an orange from his lunch box and ingeniously proposes, “What if this.../ were THE WORLD?” The concept takes off, but after the orange’s juicy slices prove insufficient for the group’s size, the kids decide they need “something bigger that can provide for everyone.” They pick up a dodgeball, which works well until an older kid takes it. Next up, a tree provides for all “at the same time”—until the children’s collective weight alarmingly breaks off its limbs. Dialogue-driven action from Barr (The Upside Down Hat) successfully captures the spirit of playground politics, while thick chromatic outlining and light shading imbue radiant, rainbow-hued colored-pen and -pencil drawings by Ford (I Love Your Face!) with a boisterousness that aptly conveys the energy of the crowd’s exploits. Object by object, the youths seemingly develop a hands-on appreciation for how to create an equitable society, and a beatific close sees them opening their eyes to the vast world that already surrounds: “Then they played even better.” -from Publisher's Weekly
