If the World Were a Village: A Book About the World's People

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

This combination fact and picture book presents the population of the
world as a village of 100 people and then presents world statistics in
terms of that village. We usually think of statistics as something
scientifically valid, while metaphor demands no such exactitude. The
combination of the two creates some odd incongruities and
oversimplifications. For example, with 6000 languages spoken in the
“global village,” but only 100 people, necessarily everyone would
have to speak an average of 600 languages. Instead, we’re told they
speak only eight. Some people breathe clean air and some polluted air.
In a village that small, the air would mix—everyone would breathe
polluted air.

The intervals in the statistics are not standard across the book, which
makes it more difficult to understand and explain. For example, age is
given in 10 intervals, while income is given in only three. At the high
end, income is quoted in dollars per year, and at the low end in dollars
per day. Despite such flaws, one has to laud the author for attempting
this daunting task and executing it as well as he has done. My 7– and
10-year-old children were willing to ignore the statistical oddities and
accept that the village was a metaphor. For them it was an effective
vehicle for the messages.

The artwork in the book is primitive in style, but engaging, and does
attempt to illustrate the statistical facts presented on each page. The
pictures are detailed enough to hold the interest of a small child.
Recommended.