I Like, I Don't Like

K-Gr 2—This picture book from Italy compares the lives of fortunate children with those who must work to survive. One page shows a carefree child lying on a plush rug with her teddy bear with the text, "I like rugs," while the opposite page depicts a girl working at a loom with the caption, "I don't like rugs." Another spread contrasts a little boy playing with plastic blocks ("I like bricks") with one who is forced to carry a heavy load of real bricks on his head ("I don't like bricks."). Two pages of endnotes briefly discuss child poverty and labor, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and ways for concerned citizens to get involved. The collage art, incorporating photographs of actual children, is powerful. This is a book for launching conversations; the subjects dealt with are highly complex ones with no easy answers, and the responsibility of corporations and consumers in the developed world in sustaining child labor is not addressed. Lois Brandt's Maddi's Fridge offers young readers a less overwhelming introduction to poverty.