

Lexile Measure: 990L (What's this?)
Series: CitizenKid
Hardcover: 32 pages
Publisher: Kids Can Press; First edition (August 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1554533449
ISBN-13: 978-1554533442
Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 0.2 x 12.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #114,501 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #6 in Books > Children's Books > Geography & Cultures > Cultural Studies > Sociology #46 in Books > Children's Books > Geography & Cultures > Cultural Studies > Customs, Traditions, Anthropology #255 in Books > Children's Books > Geography & Cultures > Explore the World > United States
Age Range: 8 - 12 years
Grade Level: 3 - 7

There are more than 306 million people living in the United States today, but if you decided to statistically break down these numbers into a village of one hundred people you would see some very amazing things. For example, in that village you would see an assortment or "rainbow of colors." You would see thirteen foreign-born people, some of whom would be citizens and some not. In that number you would see Latin Americans, Europeans and one person who could come from anywhere from Oceania to Australia. Of the remaining one hundred, seventy-five of them would be white, twelve would be black and one would be Native American. In a small village of one hundred, we can easily see our differences, but can also see how alike some of us really are depending on what we look at.In this book, depending upon which way you looked at the village of one hundred people you will discover some amazing facts. Due to the fact we are a nation based on an immigrant population you will find people from around the world living here. You will find people who live in the urban, suburban and rural areas, the percentage of people who live where and the changes that have occurred over the past one hundred years. You can take a look at the family composition, what types of people compose a household, religious practices of people, what people do (work, go to school, stay home, etc.), how old we are, how wealthy we are, what kind of "stuff" we own, our energy consumption in comparison to the rest of the world, how healthy we are, and a brief glimpse into the future.This is an amazing book that has a lot of potential for classroom use. It is a really interesting eye-opener, a lot of fun to read and very informative.
Wikipedia defines demography as "the statistical and mathematical study of the size, composition, and spatial distribution of human populations and how these features change over time." And so one can teach a new vocabulary word and concept when explaining to students how IF AMERICA WERE A VILLAGE provides a great lesson in demography.But, more importantly, by imagining America to be a village of 100 people and then providing answers to a series of questions about the make-up of those 100 villagers, David J. Smith offers readers the invaluable opportunity to look beyond the ends of their noses and their own neighborhoods in order to get a broader and more objective view of the three-hundred-and-six-plus million people ("1 birth about every 8 seconds and one death every 12 seconds") who collectively make up these United States of America.The questions addressed in the book include:"Where do we come from?""What religions do we practice?""How old are we?""How wealthy are we?""How healthy are we?"I have spent most of my life living in four places. I grew up in Plainview and Commack on Long Island; lived my years right after college in Southampton, Long Island; and have spent the second half of my life here in Sebastopol, California. Are these places like the U.S. as a whole? Not even close! Thus, many of the facts I learned from this book are as surprising to me than they will be to younger readers."A new immigrant arrives every 27 seconds," and "In our village of 100 about 13 are foreign-born."For instance, like Holling Hoodhood from THE WEDNESDAY WARS, I have repeatedly lived in communities in which a large percentage of the families was Jewish. That only 1 person in our U.S.
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