Peace Begins With You

by Katherine Scholes, Robert Ingpen (Illustrator)

Explains, in simple terms, the concept of peace, why conflicts occur, how they can be resolved in positive ways, and how to protect peace.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Nonfiction

40 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1990

About the author

Katherine Scholes was born in Tanzania, East Africa, the daughter of a missionary doctor and an artist. She has fond memories of travelling with her parents and siblings on long safaris to remote areas where her father operated a clinic from his Land Rover. When she was ten, the family left Tanzania, going first to England and then settling in Tasmania. As an adult, Katherine moved to Melbourne with her film-maker husband. After working there for many years, writing books and making films, they returned with their two sons to live in Tasmania.

Katherine's internationally bestselling novels have been translated into numerous languages. She is especially popular in Germany and France, where she has sold over two million books.

Reviews

[Tayebe Ej · Rating 2 out of 5]

یعنی من اگر بفهمم چرا اسم کتاب رو عوض میکنن موقع ترجمه و اصرار دارن یه اسم غیرجذاب بذارن خیلی خوشحال میشم :))
عنوان فارسی: دوران صلح
کتاب، داستان نداره، داره در مورد صلح صحبت میکنه و راههای فراهم کردنش و دلیل مهم بودنش، مستقیم همه چیز رو میگه و پیچیدگی خاصی هم نداره، فلذا لذت خاصی از خوندنش نبردم.. چند خطش برای گپ و گفت درباره صلح میتونه بعنوان محرک شروع گفتگو استفاده بشه.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Robert R. Ingpen is one of my favourite illustrators and this is the main reason I'd picked up a copy of this book from a little free library.

As a children's picture book, Peace Begins with You is a comprehensive book on peace. It talks about inner peace, world peace, big conflicts, small conflicts, mediators, etc. It talks about needs and wants and how conflicts arise. It gives the reader ideas on how to become a peacemaker.

The major turnoff for me is that this book is thoroughly didactic -- it seeps through every word, every sentence. The type of book that makes me want to run as far away from it as possible.

That said, my empathetic 7-year-old likes it enough to want to keep it, so I suppose at least some of the book resonates with children.

2 stars for text
4 stars for illustrations

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tanzania

"Peace can feel warm, bright, and strong or calm, cool, and gentle."

"Peace is being allowed to be different and letting others be different from you."

"There are always choices to be made. Some choices threaten peace. Some choices protect it."

"Peace is not a gap between times of fighting, or a space where nothing is happening."

"Peace is something that lives, grows, spreads and needs to be looked after."

[Abrar · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was gifted to me in 5th grade and it's my 3rd time reading it and it always feels like the first time

[Ashley Cousin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first thing I noticed about this book was the size and the illustrations on the cover. The book is a smallish square and not your typical size of a picture book. The illustration on the front is of two kids eating and feeding a bunch of seagulls. When opening the book up the end pages are of a mute cream color and the title page is that same color with the title printed in bolded black ink. However, by far the most interesting part of the book for me was the illustrations. I loved how each double page had a different picture that did not reflect on the previous pictures and each one was very detailed. The text was placed on the right page, expect towards the end where there is a double page with just writing, of what I consider, important text that doesn’t need illustrations with it, with the pictures on the left. Each picture was a different scene and some were on the dark, almost “creepy,” side. You could feel the emotion on the faces of the illustration, whether it be happy or sad, which both were represented. You did not need the pictures to help with the story but they were definitely an added bonus. The text itself had the main purpose to inform the reader in basic terms what peace is and how it begins with you.

[Bridgit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grade/interest level: Upper Elementary/Middle School
Reading level: AD840L (lexile.com)
Genre: Informational
Main Characters: n/a
Setting: All around the world.
POV: narrator

"Peace Begins with You" is an informational text that breaks down the concept of peace into simplistic but power terms. The narrator explores various aspects of peace such as having what is needed for survival, smaller things that people want, hope and opportunity for success and happiness, etc. The book also explains that peace does not mean the same thing for everyone, and touches upon how global conflict disrupts peace and how people can learn to compromise in order to maintain peace.

I loved this book and would use it for a concept lesson to establish how students treat each other and behave. I would also use it to establish community and to begin units in Social Sciences, so we have a lens to analyze history with.

[Krista Rey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE THIS BOOK! It is such a great introduction to peace and promoting it in this world. It describes what peace looks like, feels like, smells like etc. It talks about peace in many different situations. It talks about how peace is having the things you need and hope to have. It also talks about how peace is about knowing that you are loved by family or friends. It is also about being different and letting others be different from you. It goes on to talk about because people are different their needs and wants don't fit together. There can be fighting and angry words, so what can you do to stop this? At the end of the book, it talks about solutions to promote peace and to keep peace. This book could be used to promote peace at the beginning of the year or a unit on world peace. This would be great for showing students what we want our classroom to look and feel like. They would be able to get an image from this book which would be great.

[Tara Sheehan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book on what peace is and what it entails. I thought it was one of the more powerful children's books that I have read, and I was amazed by the illustrations. The layout of the book is more squared than your typical horizontal or portrait layout. The endpages are cream and very basic. The illustrations are extremely realistic, detailed, and beautiful. The technique of cross-hatching is used and emphasizes the shadows that are created, making it even more realistic. The text is very basic, most of the time on the right side, of a double-page spread. One of the images features what seems to be a protester throwing a some sort of a home-made bomb, which surprised me. Even as an adult I enjoyed this book, and I think it could be shared across many age groups.

[Francie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this book up to share with my children and discuss.

Illustrated by Robert R. Ingpen. There is one picture I found particularly disturbing -- I believe it is a person throwing a "molotov cocktail" (homemade bomb). I am curious whether the children will notice what is happening. They certainly will not have context to understand this, but they may be able to figure it out. If so, I think it will be particularly provocative for our discussion.

Other illustrations in the book are lovely -- even, I think, those that show scenes of sadness or injustice.

[Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

When talking about what Peace is, this book offers an idea of what peace feels like. It is a reminder of how some of the choices we make affect others. The vocabulary may be an obstacle for some children, but overall I believe this book can be used in grade levels 3 and up. I enjoyed the book and wanted to read it to a group of 2nd high risk 2nd graders, but I changed my mind, because I did not have the time needed to fully explain all the terms. (Could be used when learning about Martin Luther King Jr.)

[Claire Binkley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why hadn't I looked at this sooner?
This is something that I ended up considering for a long time at the university (conflict resolution studies).
In fact, I'd probably better examine some of the philosophy texts from those courses through this medium eventually...

As the description details: this is a simple way to consider peace. This book is much easier to handle than the philosophical pandering I have hidden a few rooms over.

This book doesn't get into why peace is often not an option, but it left me with such a warm feeling that I found that almost entirely okay.

[Mackenzie Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does a nice job of depicting that peace can mean different things to different people. I found the illustrations to be a little creepy, but overall I think this book was good! It would be a great resource to have in a classroom to teach children the value of peace!

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple presentation of what peace means and how we can each contribute to it.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

great text

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some great ideas for children but is a written on a level that is challenging for children to read and comprehend.

[Stephanie Whitley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great message. Good read aloud for the beginning of the school year. Illustrations aren't very up to date.

[Sequoia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful. We read this as a family monthly.

[Glenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent examination of the issue of peace and the choices involved.