"A Smile Means Friendship to Everyone"

As the last challenge for The Happy Day Project, I shopped at Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalog. I chose Gift #3: Teach a Child to Read and Write. Isn't that a priceless gift to offer? I feel a little more connected to my neighbor, even if my neighbor is far away, is of a different faith, dresses or eats differently, or learns to read and write in a different language. It reminded me that it's a small world, after all. 

Pondering that led me to a picture book (what else?) celebrating our small, happy, broken, growing world. Joey Chou's illustrations in It's a Small World are bright and bursting with color and warmth. The depictions of people around the world are predictably stereotypical, but not offensive, in my opinion. (See the castle on the cover? It is published by Disney.) The text follows the sweet lyrics and music by brothers Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman.