How to Teach Kids About Sustainable Development Goals
One of the ways to explain the Sustainable Development Goals to the children can be through the SDG Book Club.
News about the humanitarian crisis, climate crisis, and wars can be difficult for us to read and might even take us some time to take in. It can be equally difficult to explain the news to the children, who may start to worry. Set up by the United Nations in April of 2019, the SDG Book Club in collaboration with their ‘book-related’ partners, “… selects books which contain messages related to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the core of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, with the aim of providing a playful and participative way to learn about the Goals, through stories and characters children can relate to.” The target age group for the book club is children between 6-12. The SDG Book Club aims to use the books as a tool to encourage children to interact with the principles of the SDGs. The book list will be updated the first week of every month till September 2020, 17 months in total. The reading list of books (fiction, non-fiction, and other genres) will be from around the world related to each of the 17 SDGs in all six official UN languages—Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. Though the Book Club will not sell or promote the sale of the books featured in the reading list you can buy the books online or at your nearby book store or even lend them from your local library.
Below are some of the recommendations from the reading list provided by the SDG book club:
Goal 1 – NO POVERTY
Serafina’s Promise by Ann E. Burg
This tale of one girl’s aspirations to be a doctor is a sad and unflinching depiction of poverty in Haiti but also an uplifting story about the power of love. Serafina both gives to and receives from her parents an understanding and fervent love. It’s this nucleus of her family which supports her through all hardships. This is a thoroughly engrossing piece of imagined reality, guaranteed to whet the appetite for more such literature. It is also saturated with warmth in its tales of friendship, experiences that buoy the narrator even as she watches a baby brother fade into nothingness, blighting her faith in humanity.
Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena.
A beautifully illustrated book that looks at material poverty through the eyes of a young boy who rides on a bus with his grandmother across town. As CJ points out the things that other people have that he doesn’t, his grandmother responds with a positive and hopeful answer to show the beauty of life’s simpler things, the wonderful people who they know and meet on their ride through the city, and how rich their lives already are.
A Chair For My Mother by Vera B Williams
The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde
The Lunch Thief by Anne C. Bromley
A moving story about a boy who steals other pupils’ lunches. One of his classmates, Rafael, notices this behavior but rather than just presuming Kevin guilty, he tries to understand why. In the process, Rafael realizes that Kevin’s family lost their home to a wildfire and is living in a motel. It makes Rafael appreciate his lunch more and also realize that he could share his lunch with Kevin.
Stone Soup by Jon J. Muth
When people work together and look after each other, wonderful things happen and in this book, a big pot of delicious soup brings a village together. Sharing and generosity can help fight hunger around the world and this book illustrates how to do it. The simple things in life are the most important:sharing with each other and caring for each other. When everyone brings something small and puts it together, something big and wonderful is created for everyone to enjoy, just like a pot of soup.
Maddi’s Fridge by Lois Brandt
Thank you Omu! By Oge Moral
The Good Garden: How One Family Went from Hunger to Having Enough by Katie Smith Milway
GOAL 3: GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
I am Peace: A Book of Mindfulness by Susan Verde
A lovely narrative storybook to lead younger children towards mindfulness and inner peace, thoughtfully illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds, that captures the thread of anxious thoughts as they run away. Reading the story leads the child through a mindfulness exercise, relieving stress and increasing well-being. The simplicity of the approach and gentleness of the illustrations and words have a direct effect on the reader. It encourages a sense of peace that can also be shared with others. There is a practical exercise of guided meditation at the end of the story.
A handful of quiet: happiness in four pebbles by Thich Nhat Hahn
A beautifully illustrated and simply explained introduction to mindfulness for children, based on holding, drawing or focusing on everyday tangible objects such as pebbles, marbles or beans. Meditation and mindfulness are great tools for mental and physical health and well-being. Renowned Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hahn shares his creative, hands-on approach for children and families to help relieve stress, increase concentration and deal with difficult emotions. This book can be read by an older child alone or used as a guide for parents and educators to teach children a simple meditation technique. It includes practical projects and tools to set all members of the family on the path to a healthier life.
What What What? by Arata Tendo
Rain School by James Rumford
Captures the excitement of children starting school for the first time and wondering what it will be like. In this particular setting in Chad, the children and the teachers create a temporary school building each year which lasts for the nine months between the long rains. The message is one of collaboration, problem solving and hope with enthusiastic valuing of an education at its core.
When I was Eight by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton Jury
Olemaun is eight and knows a lot of things. But she does not know how to read. Ignoring her father’s warnings, she travels far from her Arctic home to the outsiders’ school to learn. The nuns at the school call her Margaret. They cut off her long hair and force her to do menial chores, but she remains undaunted. Her tenacity draws the attention of a black-cloaked nun who tries to break her spirit at every turn. But the young girl is more determined than ever to learn how to read.
Razia’s Ray of Hope by Elizabeth Suneby
Malala by Malala Yousafzai
Malala’s autobiography is immediately accessible to all ages, as it is written in an engaging style. Malala connects the reader to her life and her loving family before the shooting. She captures the wide reach of trauma that the incident caused, as well as her desire to live beyond her attack. The book is a good choice to address SDG 5, as it illustrates powerfully that the fight remains relevant and necessary for realising basic human rights for women and girls to have equal access to education, and the consequent access to opportunities for economic, social and political development. Malala’s story illustrates why the fight to ensure the eradication of harmful practices targeted at women is crucial to ending gender-based discrimination prevalent in many countries around the world.
Bright sparks – amazing discoveries, inventions and designs by women by Owen O’Doherty
A beautifully designed compendium of women achievers, across time and in diverse fields. The reader is shown the impact these women have had on the world. While I think it a pity that photographs of the women weren’t included where possible, I think the graphic design and drawings will make this very appealing to tweens, and even younger readers (although the vocabulary would require some explanation to the very younger readers). The glossary of terms that accompanies each biography and section is very user-friendly for the older reader. This book addresses SDG 5 as it highlights in a unique style, the contribution women have made, which provides factual support in arguing for an end to gender discrimination that denies women equal access to education, and all that follows. The book illustrates why allowing women opportunities enriches all humanity.
GOAL 6: CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION
One Well -The Story of Water on Earth by Rochelle Strauss
Beautifully illustrated, this book helps children better understand how essential water is to our lives, and the impact of environmental demands, including population growth and pollution on our finite water resources. This book will appeal to the confident reader.
Water Stories from Around the World
This collection of stories delights because of its diversity. Each story is attractively illustrated, and will appeal to young readers. The stories show why achieving SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation matters, and that it matters to everyone everywhere.
Gizo, Gizo – A Tale from the Zongo Lagoon by Emily Williamson & students of the Quranic School in Cape Coast
For more information about the SDG Book club and other actions you can take to promote the SGDs, please visit the Book Club’s blog here.
You can view the latest list of books HERE. We are one of the most trusted sustainable packaging companies specialized in GOT certified tote bags. GOTS certification meet all of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
