If Kids Ruled the World

by Linda Bailey, David Huyck (Illustrator)

Overview

This original, fun picture book delightfully describes, in hilarious detail, a small child's idea of utopia. Every two-page spread offers something new about this fantasy life, including, "If kids ruled the world, every day would be your birthday! Birthday cake would be good for you. Your doctor would say, 'Don't forget to eat your birthday cake so you'll grow up strong and healthy!'" And, "You could go to any kind of school you like ... Circus School. Fairy School. Inventing School. Lots of kids would go to Recess School." The topics that bestselling, award-winning author Linda Bailey has chosen are pitch-perfect for young children, from bedtime and baths (none!) to pets and tree houses (lots!). And illustrator David Huyck's detailed, brightly hued artwork is full of energy, joy and humor that gets right to the heart of a child's view of the world.

While this is a book that would happily be enjoyed from cover to cover, it's not hard to envision an enthralled child'spending long stretches of time daydreaming about one particular scenario. In the classroom, this book would make an excellent springboard for art projects or creative writing assignments that explore children's own unique image of the perfect world. Particularly gratifying is the emphasis throughout on sharing all the good things brought to life in a world of a child's own making. This book is a truly exuberant celebration of childhood, play and imagination. It's sure to become a classic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781554535910
Publisher:	Kids Can Press, Limited
Publication date:	09/01/2014
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	783,901
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD540L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Linda Bailey is an award-winning author of many books for children, including Goodnight Sweet Pig, Stanley's Party, the Stevie Diamond Mysteries, and the Good Times Travel Agency series. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Raised near Chicago, David grew up half a block from the candy store in one direction, and half a block from the playground in the other. Along with a limitless supply of Legos, cartoons and all genres of books, the resulting high-fructose queasiness is the point source for everything he has made ever since.

Editorial Reviews

07/14/2014
This warm piece of speculative fiction is tailor-made for both circle-time reading and spurring class projects. Bailey’s (the Stanley series) what-ifs run the gamut from calendar and nutritional reform (“If kids ruled the world, every day would be your birthday! Birthday cake would be good for you”) to the legalization of transgressive behavior (“Beds would be for bouncing on and hiding underneath”) and vastly increased personal agency (“If you felt like going somewhere, you’d have your own thingamajiggy to get there”). Huyck’s (Nine Words Max) sunny scenes are filled with devil-may-care, romping kids—the pictures have the lovely, pretend-play-comes-to-life feel of vintage Golden Books. Never once does a kid yearn for a world with more screen time: in fact, the book’s best spread shows a close-up of a tree fort whose occupant has pulled up the rope ladder and is unseen except for two legs that end in flip-flops and two hands writing in a journal. If that is indeed what would happen if kids ruled the world, let’s welcome them as our new overlords. Ages 3–7. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

From the expected to the surreal, Bailey imagines a world where kids make the rules ... The reminder to play at all ages is important ...—Kirkus Reviews

Thanks to the joyful artwork and a text that unapologetically indulges every kid's wish for things like a personal castle and Recess School, this is a surefire winner.—School Library Journal

The vibrant illustrations and spirit of imagination will make this a delightful reading experience for young readers. The story is fun, and the illustrations are wonderful.—CM Magazine

This story would be great for story time readings, as it comes with great pictures to help spur on the imagination.—Resource Links

This warm piece of speculative fiction is tailor-made for both circle-time reading and spurring class projects. Bailey's (the Stanley series) what-ifs run the gamut.—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

10/01/2014
PreS-K— Every page features a child's dream come true: birthday cake would be good for us, beds would be for bouncing, every yard would have a lake, every tree would have a tree house. This is a wonderful book for sharing in storytime; it guarantees an abundance of ooohs, aaahs, and even cheers and will rev up imaginations about all kinds of fun things kids might do if they were in charge. The full-bleed illustrations are dynamic, bright, and cheerful, brimming with happy children of all ethnicities (and ages, as there are white-haired "kids" included in the last two spreads). Thanks to the joyful artwork and a text that unapologetically indulges every kid's wish for things like a personal castle and Recess School, this is a surefire winner. Some books are built purely for fun, and this is one of them.—Alyson Low, Fayetteville Public Library, AR

School Library Journal

2014-06-18
From the expected to the surreal, Bailey imagines a world where kids make the rules.Of course, every day would be your birthday, and of course, birthday cake would be good for you. You’d never have to make your bed, and if you wanted to travel, just take a pirate ship—or a rocket! In a world where kids decide what is best, Bailey presumes that everyone would want to be a prince or a princess and own a pet kangaroo, elephant or grizzly bear. Baths would not be mandatory, and you could wear whatever you want, even underwear on your head. Most of the suppositions are fairly mundane, but a few inventive moments sneak in—such as, all the sidewalks would be trampolines. The narrative’s final effort at justifying these silly, high-spirited rules is to say that “no one would ever forget how to / PLAY! / No way!” Huyck’s detailed, digital illustrations stretch the light tone even farther. Kids of all ethnicities crowd the pages, often in separate, humorous vignettes tucked within the backgrounds.The reminder to play at all ages is important, but one wishes if kids did rule the world there might be an element of idealism as well, not just whimsy. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews

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