The Way to School, by Rosemary McCarney

If your parents ever told you (or you have ever told your kids!) what a tough time you had getting to school, uphill both ways, ten miles in waist-deep snow, etc., even your exaggerations probably won't match up to the journeys to school taken by the children in The Way to School.  Rosemary McCarney, who works for Plan International Canada, has gathered images from around the world showing children on their way to school.

If these kids ever have kids, they will have stories to tell about getting to school.  "We had to crawl across a damaged bridge, in danger of falling into a river."  "I rode a water buffalo to school."  "We climbed a high ladder to crawl over a cliff."  "We climbed over mountain and went through a tunnel in the mountain."  "We walked across a glacier on the way to school."  "We had to carry our own desks to school."  Or, "You're lucky to go to school.  We were too poor for school." Or, "I couldn't go to school because our school was destroyed by an earthquake/typhoon/tsunami."  You get the idea.

The photographs are beautiful in the various settings.  The joy the children share in going to school is evident.  I love this kind of book, that makes the world seem bigger, by showing people from around the world, and smaller, by showing universal shared experiences.  My kids' schools are very different from the schools or the ways to school in The Way to School.  But I can see my kids and their classmates in the faces of these kids around the world.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!