Off to class Inncredible and unusual schools around the world

Review by Booklist Review

How children are educated is central to how they live, and this lively picture book featuring 23 different contemporary schools is an exciting way to connect readers with children in classrooms around the world. Included are a rain-forest school in Brazil, tent schools set up after the Haitian earthquake, and a school in the Himalayas that blends Tibetan Buddhist culture with modern technology using solar panels for electricity. The presentation is never romanticized, and the down-to-earth details capture both the excitement and the challenges students face in daily life, with several full-color photographs on every page. A child in Uganda has 100 classmates, for example. A Canadian child who travels because of her father's job sends her homework by e-mail to her teacher every day. In Siberia, teachers arrive by sleigh to indigenous communities and set up school inside a tent, with a computer powered by a generator; and in Scotland, a brand-new school is specially designed for the disabled. A global map shows each school's location, and kids will recognize both the hardships and the exciting diversity.--Rochman, Hazel Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Photographs, accessible prose, and personal accounts paint a portrait of innovative schools in this vibrant, globe-trotting guide. In post-Katrina New Orleans, students plant an "edible schoolyard." In Kenya, a school provides dowries for fathers-in exchange, their daughters go to school for eight years, rather than marrying. Hughes's examples of grassroots education in action are inspirational and informative. Ages 9-13. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 2-5-While many children take their school routine for granted, others struggle to receive an education. This book examines innovative schools around the world, the educators who brought them about, and the students who attend them. The book has three chapters. "Working with the Environment" features boat schools, rainforest schools, and tent schools; "No School? No Way!," focuses on educational opportunities for disenfranchised populations; and "One Size Doesn't Fit All" is about unconventional programs in nontraditional settings. Each spread is devoted to one school, with five to seven paragraphs of text, vivid full-color photographs, and a map indicating its general area of the world. The strong emphasis on humanitarianism will move, excite, and inspire those reading about Hurricane Katrina survivors planting gardens, homeless children in India hearing stories on a train platform, and Maasai girls going to school instead of being sold into marriage. End materials include a world map with the locations of all 24 schools and resources to help readers get involved. As our children watch disaster footage and hear about human-rights violations, books like Off to Class will encourage them to help to "be the change they wish to see in the world."-Rebecca Dash Donsky, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Surprising schools to be found around the world include new schools that work with the environment, schools in places where none existed and schools that meet children more than halfway.Directly addressed to the reader, lively text in short chunks on double-page spreads introduces 23 schools from 20 countries. Each is located on a map, described briefly and shown in colorful photographs emphasizing the students. Sidebars may spotlight a particular student or offer more details about school life, the building process or events from the school's history. Each spread also includes a boxed fast fact or two. Many of these schools are new, in remote, out-of-the-way places, places where kids weren't previously served or places where man-made or natural disasters have disrupted children's lives. The author makes a point of noting the use of local materials and energy-efficient construction, and she gives credit to the founders. Schools for street kids and refugees, one for girls who would otherwise be married, another for children with sensory impairments, schooling by e-mail and unschooling are some of the more unusual examples. The text concludes with a list of websites of schools and sponsoring organizations and another reminder of the U.N. declaration that every child as the right to an education.Unusual and useful. (acknowledgements, credits, index, map) (Nonfiction. 9-13)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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From Chapter 1: Bangladesh -- Boat Schools Water, Water, Everywhere Has your school ever closed because of the weather? Lots of kids miss a day here and there because of snow or extreme heat. But in Bangladesh, students can miss months at a time during monsoon season, when heavy rains cause floods. Even when schools are open, it can be impossible for kids to get there. Climate change is making the flooding even more extreme by melting glaciers in the Himalayas. The runoff swells rivers and makes them overflow their banks. The floods damage farms, schools, and other buildings. In the past few years, thousands of schools have been damaged, and hundreds have been destroyed completely. Unsinkable Schools After seeing many of his friends and family members miss out on an education, an architect named Mohammed Rezwan decided he was not going to let floods stop any more children from getting to school. He figured that the best way to beat the rising waters is to rise with them--on a boat. "I thought that if the children cannot come to the school, then the school should come to them," he explains. He raised enough money to open the first school boat in 2002. Now there are ninety boats that travel along a 250-kilometer (155 mile) stretch of rivers and streams in northwestern Bangladesh, giving thousands of kids the chance to learn. Ahoy, (class) mates! "Boat school is the combination of a school bus and schoolhouse," says Mohammed. Six days a week, each boat stops at different villages along the shore, picking up children who are mostly in the same grade. When the classroom is full--about thirty to thirty-five students--the work begins. For about three hours, the students have lessons in math, reading, writing, English, Bengali, the environment, and conservation. Then the boat returns all the students to their riverbank stops. From there, the boat moves on to pick up another set of students for another three-hour lesson. Each boat offers three sets of lessons a day. Sidebar: All aboard If it weren't for the boats coming to pick up the children at their "doorsteps," many young girls might not be going to school at all. Their parents wouldn't let them travel out of the village to the nearest government school because it is dangerous and takes them away from their chores for too long. Now that the boat schools come to them, the girls have time to both learn and work. Wireless waves Even though the boats float from place to place, they have electricity to run up to four computers, a printer, a DVD player, and CD player. Solar panels on the roofs provide all the electricity they need. The boats are connected to the internet through wireless technology. Besides all the modern technology, the boats also stock hundreds of books. "Solar power means we can offer late evening classes on the school boat for the children who work during the day," says Mohammed. The boats also act as community centers in the evening, giving adults the chance to learn about things like health care and new rice-farming methods. Excerpted from Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World by Susan Hughes All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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