Peace

Halperin (Planting the Wild Garden) combines spreads that evoke stained glass with simple, aphoristic statements about how peace grows ("When there is peace in our hearts, there will be peace in our homes"). Watercolor-and-colored-pencil spreads, divided into smaller panels, show miniatures of the world's children with quotations from figures like Mother Theresa running decoratively through and around them: "Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person." A child sits next to a donkey underneath a crescent moon; an Asian child and a white-bearded grandfather look at a computer together. Children demonstrate with placards ("Girls can be scientists, too!"), help each other with homework, and bend over buckets, doing chores. Many spreads show animals and plants alongside humans: it's clear that for Halperin, peace can come only when humans live in balance with the Earth. Although some of the quotations will be beyond the comprehension of younger readers ("Slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures"), the main text is simple enough that repeated readings may have children reciting along. Ages 4%E2%80%938. Agent: Alyssa Eisner Henkin, Trident Media Group. (Jan.)