A review by lcgerstmann
Beatrice's Goat by Page McBrier

4.0

I read this book to my Daisy Girl Scout Troop for "World Thinking Day", the topic was "Together We Can Save Childrens' Lives". Teaching poverty, hunger and disease to upper middle class suburban first graders is a challenge. They not only have no concept that children around the world are dying from things they take for granted (lack of food, clean water and immunizations) , they have no concept that other people live in very drastically different environments. This book accurately portrays the day-to-day life of a girl their own age in Uganda, where she dreams of going to school and having enough to eat (things they take for granted). Beatrice also works hard taking care of her siblings, working in the fields and helping to support her family, another very foreign concept. (They were amazed that people live in houses made of mud!). These topics are presented in a non-scary and enlightening manner and my girls were very interested and engaged in the story. I feel they learned a lot about the world and they seemed motivated to want to help. My own daughter asked to hear the story again at home.