The Dillons' last collaboration aims to empower children, with an ostensibly child-narrated text imagining a world free of poverty and conflict because kids are in charge. But adult voices creep in, and there's no attempt to explain how kids would achieve their admirable goals. Rich illustrations show diverse groups of cheerful children working together--volunteering in hospitals, cleaning up trash, and more.

-If kids ran the world,- this warmhearted manifesto begins, -we would make it a kinder, better place.- Seen against a bright white backdrop, a troupe of children in a rainbow of colors swarms through a flower garden, trimming, watering, and digging. -We-d take care of the most important things,- the children say. -We know people are hungry, so all over the world, everyone would have enough to eat.- They bring barrows and baskets full of delicious food to a banquet table. -Everyone would have a safe place to live.... Friendship, kindness and generosity would be worth more than money.- The Dillons, in their final collaboration (Leo died in 2012), make the creation of this ideal world seem like play; there-s no sanctimony, nor any sense of weary obligation. The spreads balance the lively

K-Gr 2 In this idealistic vision of our world as run by children, the Dillons imagine a utopia free of hunger, inequality, and poverty: "everyone would have enough to eat&30;Everyone would have a safe place to live," etc. Multicultural arrays of children clad in whimsical clothing fixedly grin from every page as they care for the environment and spread generosity, peace, and love. To be sure, the aspirations espoused by the voice of these "kids" are admirable and inspiring, and the title could be used to initiate classroom discussions about improving society. However, the tone of the narrative is somewhat didactic, and sentiments such as "No bullying would be allowed" and "Kids would love school" reveal a wistful adult rather than an enthusiastic child. Books like Peter Brown's The Curious Garden (Little, Brown, 2009) or Liz Garton Scanlon's All the World (S. &;. S, 2009) express similar themes of world unity and children effecting change in a more subtle way. Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, formerly at Chappaqua Library, NY