02 Jul / My School in the Rain Forest: How Children Attend School Around the World by Margriet Ruurs
Wherever you are in the world, education is a key element to a more fulfilling life. Ruurs, herself an education specialist, celebrated the love of reading in her award-winning previous title, My Librarian Is a Camel: How Books Are Brought to Children Around the World. In her latest, she captures children around the globe going to school in some unexpected locations.
A first-ever school in a small village in Afghanistan taught more than a thousand children to read and write, especially girls who were too-long denied an education – but even a protective wall was not enough to keep it safe from the current turmoil throughout the country and the school was sadly demolished. But hope keeps the villagers believing in education and a new school someday.
In the Australian outback and Egyptian desert, children gather around their computers for classes via the internet! In the tropical regions of Cambodia, students take boats to their floating school; so, too, in the Guatemalan rainforest, students are ferried to their schools. In remote Indian villages, children learn out in the open, while Kenyan children study under a tree.
Children from all over the world gather at an international school in Malaysia, while kids from neighboring villages are taught at a monastery in Myanmar. Many sacrifices are made to allow children to go to a community school high in the Himalayas of Nepal. Young boys are sent to boarding school in Scotland while home schooling proves to be a popular option for American children. Perhaps most striking of all is school aboard the MV Anastasis, a hospital ship that continually goes around the world providing free health care in developing countries. How cool is that?!!
Readers: Children, Middle Grade
Published: 2009
So glad to see that you enjoyed my book! I had such fun finding the stories, talking to the teachers, children and parents in such diverse schools. I just had the amazing experience of going out with the mobile library in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia to help bring books to nomad children and others in very remote locations. How wonderful to share the joy of books with kids around the world! If you would like to find out how you can help to bring books or teaching resources to children in other countries, check my website and click on the cover of My Librarian is a Camel.
Thanks for reading my books!
Wow, it’s really you! Am so thrilled when authors find — and even better, COMMENT on! — BookDragon. Thanks so much for visiting indeed!
Our family has been researching and getting involved with girls and education projects in various parts of the world. The right kind of books can certainly change lives forever! Thanks so much for writing and sharing yours!
P.S. For Margriet’s readers who want more information, here is her website: http://www.margrietruurs.com/. And here is the link about helping to bring books or teaching resources to children in other countries from Margriet’s Camel cover: http://www.margrietruurs.com/books/adopt_a_mobile_library.html. Here’s to endless reading adventures!