From the bold opening assertion, "I am a child with eyes, hands, a voice, a heart, and rights," to the urgent closing plea, "We need our rights to be respected now--today," this primer invites young readers to think about their universal rights as children as embodied in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. An engaging child narrator explains that kids have a right to: a name, a family, a country, food and water, shelter, medicines and help if their bodies don't "work as well as other children's." Kids have a right to go to school, to refuse to work, to express themselves, to play and create, to be protected from disasters and wars, to be free from violence, and to breathe air "pure as the blue sky." These rights apply to all children regardless of gender, race, size, wealth or country if they live in one of the 193 countries ratifying the Convention. Readers may be surprised, however, to discover the United States is not one of these countries. Engagingly naive acrylic illustrations spanning double-page spreads evoke Chagall in their use of flat patterns, swirling lines, vibrant hues, and symbolic, powerful dream-like images of the repertoire of children's rights. Provocative and guaranteed to spark awareness of children's rights. (note on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; list of states party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) (Picture book. 4-7)

With whimsical, brightly colored acrylic paintings of kids in action around the world, this picture book, first published in Canada and translated from the French, dramatizes several articles in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Young kids will be drawn to the pictures, and they will want to talk with adults about the meaning of the simple, first-person narrative: "I have the right to have enough food to eat and water to drink." Also featured are the rights to free education, health care, and gender equality as well as "the right to be respected whether I am black or white, small or big, rich or poor, born here or somewhere else." A powerful double-page spread about child abuse shows a small child between the teeth of a dark wolf. Even with the preschool-friendly words and pictures, the main audience here will be older readers, who will want to explore the human-rights issues further with adults, including the question of why the U.S. has not agreed to the convention.

Each spread in this picture book begins with the line "I have the right . . ." Serres emphasizes that all children have the same freedoms, including the right to food, clean water, shelter, and a peaceful existence. Vivid colors in Fronty's naove-style paintings enliven the sometimes ponderous text. A helpful author's note discusses the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

From the bold opening assertion, "I am a child with eyes, hands, a voice, a heart, and rights," to the urgent closing plea, "We need our rights to be respected now--today," this primer invites young readers to think about their universal rights as children as embodied in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. An engaging child narrator explains that kids have a right to: a name, a family, a country, food and water, shelter, medicines and help if their bodies don't "work as well as other children's." Kids have a right to go to school, to refuse to work, to express themselves, to play and create, to be protected from disasters and wars, to be free from violence, and to breathe air "pure as the blue sky." These rights apply to all children regardless of gender, race, size, wealth or country if they live in one of the 193 countries ratifying the Convention. Readers may be surprised, however, to discover the United States is not one of these countries. Engagingly naive acrylic illustrations spanning double-page spreads evoke Chagall in their use of flat patterns, swirling lines, vibrant hues, and symbolic, powerful dream-like images of the repertoire of children's rights. Provocative and guaranteed to spark awareness of children's rights. (note on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; list of states party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) (Picture book. 4-7)

The United Nations- Convention on the Rights of the Child is written in dense legalese, making it hard for the group it protects to understand it. Serres (And Picasso Painted Guernica) reframes the document-s articles in the voice of a child: -I have the right to go to school and to refuse to go to work. I-ll choose a job when I-ve learned everything I want to know!- Fronty (Animals of the Bible for Young Children) paints naïf, folk art-like figures in a palette of jewel colors, suggestive of a series of slightly surreal Persian miniatures. Read aloud, the cumulative effect of Serres-s words is inspiring; children may sit up straighter as they hear that someone has thought about all the things they need: -I have the right to be free from any kind of violence, and no one has the right to take advantage of me because I am a child. No one.- In the context of a classroom discussion, this is a powerful work, and a handsome one. An afterword notes that the U.S. is one of only three countries not party to the convention. Ages 4-7. (June)