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Auf der Erde gibt es sieben Milliarden Menschen. Sie leben in verschiedenen Ländern, sprechen verschiedene Sprachen und sehen unterschiedlich aus. Manche Menschen haben helle Haare, manche ganz dunkle, manche leben in Zelten, manche in Häusern, manche essen mit Stäbchen, manche mit den Händen. So ist jeder Mensch ein Individuum. Wie gut, dass es so ist. Denn es macht die Welt bunt und lebendig.
48 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1979
20 people are currently reading
1061 people want to read
About the author
Peter Spier
83 books68 followersPeter Spier has established himself as one of the most gifted illustrators in this county. His Noah's Ark was the 1978 Caldecott Award winner, while The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night was a Caldecott Honor book in 1962. The firs two books in his widely acclaimed Mother Goose Library, London Bridge Is Falling Down! and To Market! To Market! were winner and runner-up respectively for the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. The Erie Canal and Noah's Ark both won Christopher Awards, while Gobble, Growl, Grunt received Honorable Mention in the first Children's Science Book Award program, sponsored by the New York Academy of Science.
Born and educated in Amsterdam, Mr. Spier came to New York in 1952 after serving in the Royal Dutch Navy and working for a number of years as a reporter for Elsevier's Weekly, Holland's largest magazine. He has illustrated over a hundred books and has contributed a series of murals to the H. F. Du Pont Winterthur Museum in Delaware.
Born and educated in Amsterdam, Mr. Spier came to New York in 1952 after serving in the Royal Dutch Navy and working for a number of years as a reporter for Elsevier's Weekly, Holland's largest magazine. He has illustrated over a hundred books and has contributed a series of murals to the H. F. Du Pont Winterthur Museum in Delaware.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 198 reviews
December 1, 2014
I risk the banality of superlative in saying this is the ultimate book on promoting internationality, but I've yet to see its equal. It tackles every possible subject under the vast category of cultural diversity - differences in physical appearances, clothes, food, holidays, games, homes, pets, beauty standards, beliefs, alphabets, jobs, tastes in art, etc. It also gives both xenophobia and the homogeneous construct their due beatings. (Domestic issues such as differences in gender, sexuality, and different sorts of families are left alone and that's probably just as well since those give rise to more microcosmic discussions.)
Every child I have read this book to has enjoyed it thoroughly. Some have been upset by the images of elephants and monkeys being eaten, and a two-year-old could not stop laughing at the Polynesian tribal dress, but sparking a helpful dialogue on such topics is half the point and fun. No child is born a racist, but the world certainly bombards them with (often false) concepts of homogeneity and xenophobia that must be combated.
My only complaint with the book is that on the title page are Adam and Eve (both portrayed as white) in the Garden of Eden. To use such an image as a prelude hardly seems harmonious with the central concept of cultures being different and equal. I would personally translate it to my own kids as an allusion to simply one of the millions of stories about where humans come from, but I could understand parents of another religion or culture being rather irritated.
That image aside, this book is a necessity for any progressive family.
Every child I have read this book to has enjoyed it thoroughly. Some have been upset by the images of elephants and monkeys being eaten, and a two-year-old could not stop laughing at the Polynesian tribal dress, but sparking a helpful dialogue on such topics is half the point and fun. No child is born a racist, but the world certainly bombards them with (often false) concepts of homogeneity and xenophobia that must be combated.
My only complaint with the book is that on the title page are Adam and Eve (both portrayed as white) in the Garden of Eden. To use such an image as a prelude hardly seems harmonious with the central concept of cultures being different and equal. I would personally translate it to my own kids as an allusion to simply one of the millions of stories about where humans come from, but I could understand parents of another religion or culture being rather irritated.
That image aside, this book is a necessity for any progressive family.
April 19, 2011
We still own the battered beaten-up copy of this homage to humanity that our two daughters returned to so often that it needed patching up with a judicious amount of sticky tape. A wholehearted celebration of diversity, it devotes pages to appearance, homes, food, clothes, pastimes, jobs, pets, feasts and holidays, beliefs, language, a little history, and most of all, throughout it all, to 'People everywhere. And all different.' It was first published in 1981, and now that I took it out again to use as a language teaching tool, I had to update the population figures at the beginning: it predicts that there will be 6 billion on the planet by the year 2000, so I updated the forecast to 8 billion by 2020.
It's incredibly useful as a teaching aid; vocabulary to do with appearance, to describe hair and figure, to talk about games we play, animals we keep - or would like to! The only trouble is that there is too much in there for a learner - my young student who comes just wants to look at the wonderful illustrations. So we have these little battles where I'm trying to concentrate on her learning useful words while she wants to know what that is? 'It's a Barrel Vaulted Stone House from Turkey' I think that belongs in the category 'non-essential vocabulary'.
It's incredibly useful as a teaching aid; vocabulary to do with appearance, to describe hair and figure, to talk about games we play, animals we keep - or would like to! The only trouble is that there is too much in there for a learner - my young student who comes just wants to look at the wonderful illustrations. So we have these little battles where I'm trying to concentrate on her learning useful words while she wants to know what that is? 'It's a Barrel Vaulted Stone House from Turkey' I think that belongs in the category 'non-essential vocabulary'.
June 2, 2019
when i was seven or so my uncle gave me this book for thanksgiving - the one time of the year i see him. we sat on the sofa and he read every word of it to me in his soothing voice, and let me flip the pages. we counted the people on every page. i savored every second.
years later, what remains of this book is tattered. pages have fallen out and been shoved back into place, i think one here or there has even gone missing. tape lined what once served as a binding, before it, too, succumbed. small fingers folded the corners of every resilient page. this book is loved. loved beyond words.
my hometown is extremely sheltered in terms of racial diversity. in my entire elementary school career there were only two people that were not caucasian in my entire class. two. this book helped me experience diversity, at a young age - as before it was a mostly foreign idea to me - and determine that other cultures were just as valid as my own. after all, we were all smiling together on the pages, weren't we? i will never be able to thank my uncle enough. he inspired me to stand up for the equality of myself and others no matter who i encounter.
read this book. give this book to children. teach love and respect. we are all people, and we all deserve to be treated as such.
years later, what remains of this book is tattered. pages have fallen out and been shoved back into place, i think one here or there has even gone missing. tape lined what once served as a binding, before it, too, succumbed. small fingers folded the corners of every resilient page. this book is loved. loved beyond words.
my hometown is extremely sheltered in terms of racial diversity. in my entire elementary school career there were only two people that were not caucasian in my entire class. two. this book helped me experience diversity, at a young age - as before it was a mostly foreign idea to me - and determine that other cultures were just as valid as my own. after all, we were all smiling together on the pages, weren't we? i will never be able to thank my uncle enough. he inspired me to stand up for the equality of myself and others no matter who i encounter.
read this book. give this book to children. teach love and respect. we are all people, and we all deserve to be treated as such.
March 5, 2013
People is a descriptive story written about people all over the world who are different from one another. The main character in this story is everyone. The author describes to the reader the different types of home lives that exist in the world. As a literacy, teacher I would use the text to teach students new vocabulary (ex. dialects, forbidden, and variants). In addition, People is also a great for students to learn how to communicate by using sign language. The illustrator Spier does an amazing job of capturing the authenticity of different people in the world performing everyday task. Spier implements his cultural background into the story by explaining the way America functions as a society. Students could use this book to see what the world would be like if everyone think and acted the same way.
June 12, 2011
Awesome book about the diversity and number of people on the earth. The number given in this book is 4 billion; that's a bit out of date as I believe we're slated to hit 7 billion this year. My four-year-old doesn't care about that, though.
January 27, 2022
به خاطر حس خوبی که به هم هدیه دادی ممنونم🤍:)))))))))
June 25, 2019
A brilliant idea for it's time, this book is distressingly out of date. One could excuse the use of drawings (Spier's specialty) instead of photographs, but the factual information is problematic. The first page reads:
"We all know there are lots and lots of people in the world-and many millions more each year.
There are over 4,000,000,000 human beings on earth, and if it takes you an hour to read this book, there will be 4,000 more!
By the year 2000, there will be 6,000,000,000 people on earth. If we all joined hands, the line would be 3,805,871 miles long and would stretch 153 times around the equator.
Or sixteen times the distance to the moon. More than 4,000,000,000 people... and no two of them alike!
Each and every one of us different from all the others.
Each one a unique individuals in his or her own right."
It's a lovely concept really, but considering we are over a decade PAST 2000, one longs for an updated version.
If I was the publisher, two alternatives present themselves. For purists, why not issue an anniversary edition with the original drawings and text intact, but the statistics updated? Alternatively, the publisher could find a photojournalist, who has traveled the world and has these images in his stock, to provide the visuals for a new edition. Peter Spier's original text with the updated statistics would introduce this wonderful work to a whole new generation while embracing the visual luxury the upcoming generation is experiencing.
"We all know there are lots and lots of people in the world-and many millions more each year.
There are over 4,000,000,000 human beings on earth, and if it takes you an hour to read this book, there will be 4,000 more!
By the year 2000, there will be 6,000,000,000 people on earth. If we all joined hands, the line would be 3,805,871 miles long and would stretch 153 times around the equator.
Or sixteen times the distance to the moon. More than 4,000,000,000 people... and no two of them alike!
Each and every one of us different from all the others.
Each one a unique individuals in his or her own right."
It's a lovely concept really, but considering we are over a decade PAST 2000, one longs for an updated version.
If I was the publisher, two alternatives present themselves. For purists, why not issue an anniversary edition with the original drawings and text intact, but the statistics updated? Alternatively, the publisher could find a photojournalist, who has traveled the world and has these images in his stock, to provide the visuals for a new edition. Peter Spier's original text with the updated statistics would introduce this wonderful work to a whole new generation while embracing the visual luxury the upcoming generation is experiencing.
October 29, 2014
Oh so sadly dated. It has a veneer of globalist humanism but in fact it's quite eurocentric exoticist. Also I don't think it was particularly well-researched. In a part of different homes of the world, alongside, like Adobe houses or whatever, it shows an Aboriginal dwelling that's basically a corregated iron shanty - nothing traditional about that, it's simply poverty! This is just a very weird book with some kind of off attitudes embedded in it. Apparently some people work very hard but some are quite lazy - things like that. Yikes. Also, I don't actually like his illustrations that much - they're a bit broad. Bummer, cause I'd really like a bit more of a 'right on' version of this. Drawn by someone else.
August 9, 2013
I really love this book. I used it when I taught preschool in the late 80s-early 90s and I use it now with my kids at home. I do find fault with its title page picture that features a sort of "Adam and Eve" couple of people who are...white. That is objectively unrealistic and ideologically posits whiteness as the default normative "person" of the title. So I took some sharpies and made those people dark brown with curly black hair. Then I went through the book and did the same with some of the other pictures, to give my own (African American) daughters a broader representation of themselves in the book.
After my coloring job, I give it 5 stars!
After my coloring job, I give it 5 stars!
September 23, 2009
A beautiful, insightful look at cultural diversity across the world in people's appearance, habits, personalities, languages, religions, and other features, written for children but with an adult's keen perception of human nature. It is densely illustrated in Spier's inimitable style, which could provide hours of scrutiny and consideration by young readers. His incisive visual portrayal of the human experience gives far greater meaning to the descriptive text that accompanies the pictures. This is a wonderful celebration of the many lifestyles, cultures and personalities that represent humanity.
One potential concern for parents: the book opens with a back view of Adam and Eve, unclothed, in the Garden of Eden. There is also one illustration of a tribal woman with no upper body covering. Two strategically placed stickers (or a judicious sharpie) could address these.
One potential concern for parents: the book opens with a back view of Adam and Eve, unclothed, in the Garden of Eden. There is also one illustration of a tribal woman with no upper body covering. Two strategically placed stickers (or a judicious sharpie) could address these.
July 18, 2011
I got this book for Christmas when I was four years old. It was so influential in helping me learn about other cultures and the importance of being open-minded. At first, I thought a lot of the people in the book were funny because they were different than me. I laughed at the idea of sun worshippers, I laughed at the natives with bones through their noses, and thought it was stupid that some people wouldn't eat "normal" foods like pig and fish. But as I got older, I realized that having this book around had prepared me for cultural differences. It should be an important addition to every kid's library.
February 11, 2022
Echt een topvondst. Het is een boek uit 1980 en ik heb de vierde druk uit 1992. Een boek over de verschillen en overeenkomsten tussen alle mensen ter wereld. Een wereld waarop op dat moment 5 miljard mensen leefden (even nagekeken: in 1980 waren het er 4,5 miljard en in 1992 al 5,5). Het is tijdloos en geeft tegelijk juist ook een tijdsbeeld, want bij de communicatiemiddelen zijn we blijven steken bij satellieten voor telefoon en tv, platen en cassettes. Internet, e-mail en cd's hadden hun intrede nog niet gedaan. Gelezen met mijn zoon van 11 en we vonden het allebei even leuk.
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February 15, 2011I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this book. It is about embracing one anothers' differences and explaining how people are similar and different in many different ways. I love the illustrations and examples of the different cultures and variety of people the book displays. This book would be great for any grade level (probably not pre-kindergarten though because it may be a little too advanced but maybe not depending on your students)
February 24, 2012
While I love this book and think it's great for discussing cultural diversities in the world and around us I do not think it would be good for the classroom because it has a picture of Adam and Eve not dressed in the Garden of Eden. If I were to read this to students though, I would discuss differences among people, both personal and outside appearances. We could make a graph of all the students with different color hair and eyes in the class to introduce graphing in a math lesson.
June 21, 2016
Es muy extraño: algunas personas odian a otras porque no son como ellas. Porque son diferentes.
Un libro que representa de forma rápida y directa lo importante que es ver la vida desde diferentes perspectivas. Lo que es malo para uno puede ser bueno para otros, y viceversa. Siete mil millones de seres humanos, ¿por qué preocuparnos por querer ser iguales? la vida es mejor siendo únicos.
May 29, 2019
A lovely picture-book that demonstrates to the reader all the very different PEOPLE who make up our world! This books celebrates and demonstrates diversity in multiple senses of the word. Each person on the earth is different and this nice little book reminds us we are just one of billions! Nice illustrations; an enjoyable (and perhaps, important) read for any age.
January 10, 2019
کتابی ستودنی برای کودکان و خواندنی برای بزرگسالان است.
نویسنده یکی از ریشه ای ترین مشکلات اجتماعی، یعنی ناتوانی در پذیرش تفاوت های دیگر انسان ها با خودمان را بیان کرده است.
هدیه دادن این کتاب به کودکان دور و بر شدیدا توصیه شده است.
نویسنده یکی از ریشه ای ترین مشکلات اجتماعی، یعنی ناتوانی در پذیرش تفاوت های دیگر انسان ها با خودمان را بیان کرده است.
هدیه دادن این کتاب به کودکان دور و بر شدیدا توصیه شده است.
August 9, 2020
I wish I'd found this book 30 years ago! The kids would have enjoyed it.
I inserted a sticky note showing the world population for each decade starting in 1950
In some ways, this is an historical look at cultures; clothing styles and customs have been converging.
I inserted a sticky note showing the world population for each decade starting in 1950
In some ways, this is an historical look at cultures; clothing styles and customs have been converging.
March 9, 2018
I actually didn't read this book, but saw a video of children reading it. I think it was even more meaningful to me that way. :)
November 10, 2019
Lovely book that cherishes and celebrates diversity and (almost) turns Otherness on its head. Would have liked to see more modern faces of indigeneity / urban indigenous people.
June 30, 2020
Libro bellissimo, poetico e con disegni originali.
Tutti i bambini dovrebbero leggerlo.
Semplice ma nella sua semplicità fa capire quanto sia inutile il razzismo.
Tutti i bambini dovrebbero leggerlo.
Semplice ma nella sua semplicità fa capire quanto sia inutile il razzismo.
April 22, 2024
This is such an engaging book for all children (and even adults!) about the uniqueness and diversity of the human race. I love that it opens up with a beautifully illustrated picture of Adam and Eve before The Fall (so yes, there is a nude drawn backside as a warning if you have a child who revels to point these things out to you) and leads into all the ways we are physically and culturally different and why it is such a beautiful thing that we are!
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January 5, 2020is the best book for all people.
February 18, 2025
beautiful and brimming with life!
richly illustrated and so informative while also being simple enough to captivate a young audience. i love finding children's books that transcend age groups.
richly illustrated and so informative while also being simple enough to captivate a young audience. i love finding children's books that transcend age groups.
January 14, 2018
An amazing book, that show us the difference between people around in the world.
A journey in traditions and differences around the world. :)
A journey in traditions and differences around the world. :)
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March 22, 2022A bit dated, loved the parts pointing out how there are good people and bad people but most are in between etc
September 17, 2020
Great for teaching kids about diversity
January 9, 2018
This review was originally written for The Baby Bookworm. Visit us for new picture books reviews daily!
Hello, friends! In honor of Multicultural Children’s Book Day, we read People by Peter Spier, a stunningly illustrated exploration of worldwide cultures.
There are a great many people that share our earth, billions to be exact. And those billions of people come in all shapes and sizes, colors, cultures, religions, and more. People eat different foods, they celebrate different holidays, they speak different languages. All of these things are beautiful, unique, and part of what makes our diverse, multicultural world wonderful.
Visually, this is a stunning book. Spier’s detailed, intricate illustrations are endlessly fascinating, and you could spend an hour picking out the fine details included on every page. Plus, the core message, that diversity is one of the great and precious elements of our world, is important and treated with earnest reverence. But in a book published nearly 40 years ago, there are some cringe-worthy bits (outdated statistics, Inuits referred to as “Eskimos,” a depiction of Black Peter, to name a few). It’s also an overtly honest book, discussing death, inequity of power, poverty, and other realities of life, a fact that can be viewed positively or negatively based on your preference. It even features a bit of nudity in a title page that depicts a tiny Adam and Eve (just their bare tushies, but still).
I’ve heard that in later editions, some updates to the text were made, but I cannot speak to them (we read the original 1980 copy). Overall, this is a gorgeous book that means well, but shows its age. JJ really enjoyed it, too, so I’m torn. I would say give this one a read first (the updated version would likely be preferable), and see if it’s right for your child. But for its art and overall message, we’ll call this Baby Bookworm approved (with an asterisk).
Be sure to check out The Baby Bookworm for more reviews!
December 28, 2014
"Ahora, ¿no es maravilloso que cada uno de nosotros sea diferente a cualquier otro?" Peter Spier en "Gente"
Mientras mi hermana se entretenía en el parque lanzándose en los columpios y rompiéndose la cabeza (literalmente, no sé cuántos puntos hubo que coserle a un milímetro del ojo), yo me encontraba leyendo un libro que cambió mi vida. Tendría unos... 6 años más o menos. Todavía lo abro y me emociono.
Es un libro, maravillosamente ilustrado, que habla, como su título lo dice, de la gente: gente alta, o bajita, feos o bonitos, ricos o pobres, de cualquier credo, de cualquier religión, de diferentes razas, con gustos distintos, que les gusta estar solos, que les gusta estar acompañados, que viven en casas o en chozas, que viven en China o en Holanda, que difrutan de juegos diferentes, que se visten diferente... un libro "de la vida real", como diría mi hija.
Un título que tengo por ahí, que dice que soy Licenciada en Estudios Internacionales, el inglés, francés e italiano que domino en diferentes niveles, mi esposo que trabaja en comercio y transporte internacional, los cuatro países en los que he vivido fuera de mi país natal... y esa permanente sensación de que me falta tanto por conocer de este mundo y de su gente, que no me va a dar tiempo en toda mi vida... son algunos de los testigos de que Gente, el libro, vive en mí.
Entonces, si me preguntas ¿Para qué sirve leer ? ¿Para qué sirve que los niños lean libritos con dibujitos? Te voy a decir que no tengo ni idea, cada persona es diferente, leer significa algo diferente para cada quien. Lo que sí te puedo decir es para qué me ha servido a mí: y es que si yo no leyera, sencillamente, no fuera yo.
Mientras mi hermana se entretenía en el parque lanzándose en los columpios y rompiéndose la cabeza (literalmente, no sé cuántos puntos hubo que coserle a un milímetro del ojo), yo me encontraba leyendo un libro que cambió mi vida. Tendría unos... 6 años más o menos. Todavía lo abro y me emociono.
Es un libro, maravillosamente ilustrado, que habla, como su título lo dice, de la gente: gente alta, o bajita, feos o bonitos, ricos o pobres, de cualquier credo, de cualquier religión, de diferentes razas, con gustos distintos, que les gusta estar solos, que les gusta estar acompañados, que viven en casas o en chozas, que viven en China o en Holanda, que difrutan de juegos diferentes, que se visten diferente... un libro "de la vida real", como diría mi hija.
Un título que tengo por ahí, que dice que soy Licenciada en Estudios Internacionales, el inglés, francés e italiano que domino en diferentes niveles, mi esposo que trabaja en comercio y transporte internacional, los cuatro países en los que he vivido fuera de mi país natal... y esa permanente sensación de que me falta tanto por conocer de este mundo y de su gente, que no me va a dar tiempo en toda mi vida... son algunos de los testigos de que Gente, el libro, vive en mí.
Entonces, si me preguntas ¿Para qué sirve leer ? ¿Para qué sirve que los niños lean libritos con dibujitos? Te voy a decir que no tengo ni idea, cada persona es diferente, leer significa algo diferente para cada quien. Lo que sí te puedo decir es para qué me ha servido a mí: y es que si yo no leyera, sencillamente, no fuera yo.
October 13, 2016
As the title suggests, this book is all about people. People of every nation, people around the world, people of every color and creed. I love this book because it takes an in depth look of how we all live, dress, worship, play, and enjoy life without prejudice.
The book gives children an idea of how being different is ok. However, it does not shy away from the fact that when we are different, that other people may not like us but, it is still ok to be the way we are. The author shows us that in our differences we are still all human beings, we are born as babies and die at some point.
The colors of this book are amazing:blues, reds,yellows, greens, and browns. The illustrations are all pen drawn with the colors added. This adds to the whole feel of the book and once again, highlights the title, "People".
The author has been awarded several awards for the book and it is without a doubt deserving of my 5 stars. This should be in every home, library, and classroom.
Disclosure: I obtained a copy of this book from my local library. The views here are 100% my own and may differ from yours. ~Naila Moon
The book gives children an idea of how being different is ok. However, it does not shy away from the fact that when we are different, that other people may not like us but, it is still ok to be the way we are. The author shows us that in our differences we are still all human beings, we are born as babies and die at some point.
The colors of this book are amazing:blues, reds,yellows, greens, and browns. The illustrations are all pen drawn with the colors added. This adds to the whole feel of the book and once again, highlights the title, "People".
The author has been awarded several awards for the book and it is without a doubt deserving of my 5 stars. This should be in every home, library, and classroom.
Disclosure: I obtained a copy of this book from my local library. The views here are 100% my own and may differ from yours. ~Naila Moon
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