Stars: *****
OwlKids Books (September 2013)
Children’s Nonfiction
Ages 10-14
80 Pages
Summary: Types of conflict including battles, protests, standoffs and strikes, how they start, why they start and different ways people deal (or don’t deal) with conflict.
War is definitely not a favourite subject of mine. I’m not a history buff, especially when it comes to conflict. However this book isn’t about past wars and history. It’s about the WHYs of conflict. I never understood why we have wars, why people can’t just get along. The book, although designed for late tweens and early teens, really helped me understand things better.
The book answers the hard questions like:
- What is conflict?
- Why do conflicts come up?
- How disagreements happen
- How and why conflicts become wars
- How wars end
- Building and Keeping Peace – who does it and how
- Understanding Conflicts
More importantly, it answers those questions in a clear and upfront way. No skirting around the issue and pretending people don’t fight and hurt others or take advantage of others. But not being overly scary either. Just matter of fact.
One point the book made, that really stuck with me, is the importance of looking at our similarities with others instead of focusing on our differences.
“When two sides in a disagreement feel like there’s some common ground between them, they’re way more likely to talk things out. […] But when the two sides see only their differences, they’re more likely to mistrust, fear and even hate each other.” – pg 23
It doesn’t surprise me that this book was good though, as the author is Niki Walker who also wrote another book I read but never reviewed, Off to Class. (Although I should so I can tell you what a wonderful book it was.)
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*I or a member of my review team received this book for evaluation purposes. Some links above may be affiliate links. All review are honest.
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