By Janine Schall, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Children around the world go to school, but the ways they do so and what happens once they arrive appears very different in diverse places. No matter what it looks like, schools are places of friendship, growth and learning for most children, but they are also situated in a political and cultural context that is worthy of exploration.

In this collection of picturebooks, I share different depictions of the school experience from around the world.

 

WOW Dozen features a list of 12 global books for children and adolescents around a theme, topic, issue or personal favorites. Each Dozen consists of ten newly-published titles with two older “must have” books. Please share or recommend additional books that fit the theme in the comments section or on social media using #WOWDozen. Use the printer icon in the upper left corner of this post to print or save this list as a PDF.

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• Themes: A Sky-Blue Bench, Alfonso Ruano, Antonio Skármeta, Back to School, Bahram Rahman Peggy Collins, Benjamin Chaud, Class Picture, Cristina Trapanese, Davide Cali, Elisa Amado, Gibberish, Haruo Yamashita, Helen Mortimer, Hervé Le Goff, Huynh Kim Liên, I Didn’t do my Homework Because…, Jan Spivey Gilchrist, Janine Schall, John D. Ivanko, Kazuo Iwamura, Keisha Morris, Kim LaFave, Learning, Masako Irie, Maya Ajmera, Missy Debs, My First Day, Nicola I. Campbell, Noé Carlain, Phùng Nguyên Quang, Seven Little Mice go to School, Shin-Chi’s Canoe, Tamara Pizzoli, Tererai Trent, The Composition, The Girl Who Buried Her Dreams in a Cab, When the Schools Shut Down, Yolanda Gladden, Young Vo
• Descriptors: WOW Dozen