You and Me Together: Moms, Dads, and Kids Arounds the World Book

The premise of this book is wonderful. It tells the story of what a parent and child do together throughout the day and the accompanying photographs show that this is not just one parent and one child do together, but parents and children around the world. The diversity here is just wonderful, the photographs beautiful and touching, some poignant and some charming and humorous. In the back of the book, the country and situation of each photograph/subject is explained and there is a world map to help pinpoint each country. The explanations are not nearly as thorough as those in the (superior, in my opinion) One World, One Day, but this is still an excellent book to show that parents and children love one another, even if other aspects of their daily life are different from ones own.

Unfortunately, no matter how well intentioned (or how much I may agree about the importance of the well-being of children around the globe), I did not like the way the "A note on the world's children" section, written by Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund, was presented. I would caution parents to read this first before sharing it with children as it may not be appropriate for younger kids given the sad facts presented there. It was far too preachy, in my opinion, and, I felt, unnecessary. The photographs and story are so poignant and touching, it is clear that not all children have the same access to good education, food, shelter, health and many people will feel inspired to look up ways to help simply by being touched by the work of art that is Kerley's narrative and the corresponding photographs. Instead of feeling contemplative as I did when I finished Kerley's narrative, when I closed the book after the "Message", I felt instead slightly miffed and insulted by what reminded me of a political message, saying all these terrible things out there, and that we need to fix them, and that we CAN fix them, but not giving any actual concrete examples of how to go about this and assuming that we have not thought of these things before. It read as a message for adults, as I think it was too graphic/depressing for children, and in book that seems to speak to children especially, one would wish that a message about hope and change would gave more specific examples of HOW to help, and especially how children can help other children, as was shown in the wonderful Boxes for Katje.

You and Me Together: Moms, Dads, and Kids Around the World is a children's picture book written by Barbara Kerley. It tells the story of what a parent and child do together throughout the day and the accompanying photographs show that this is not just one parent and one child do together, but parents and children around the world. As today is Family Day in Canada (15 February 2021), I thought it would be apropos to read this book today.

Kerley's text is rather simplistic, straightforward, and lyrical. The text is simple and comfortable as the narrative tells what parents and children do on a daily basis. The photographs are from the National Geographic Archives and are all sourced and identified at the end, with a world map so eager readers can locate where each child and parent comes from.

The premise of the book is rather straightforward. It shares what parents and children do on a daily basis around the world from sharing many things like a joke, a mess or a meal, a ride or a dance in this lightly rhymed book to children and their parents. Not only is it utterly reassuring, but it displays its gentle wisdom in unexpected ways and full of surprises.

All in all, You and Me Together: Moms, Dads, and Kids Around the World is a wonderful collection of pictures about parents and children from around the world.