"The Most Beautiful Village in the World' - a bookwrap

Today's book will pull at your heartstrings.  I suggest an adult read it through first and then share the story.  A story that is important and needs to be told...

Unwrapping

"The Most Beautiful Village in the World

 (Yamo's Village Series) 

by Yutaka Kobayashi

* Age Range : 5-7

* Grade Level: K-2

* Series: Yamo's Village Series

* Publisher: Museyon

* Pub. Date: September 1, 2018

* Language: English

Unwrapping some wonderful illustrations for you to enjoy

About the book

Yamo is a young boy who lives in Afghanistan, in the village of Paghman.  The landscape is green and luscious bearing abundant crops of apricots, plums and cherries. These succulent fruits are said to be the best in the world.  

Although the city is thriving and at peace all around it war is raging.  Yamo has his first experience going to the market with his father in place of his older brother Haroon who is off fighting in the war.  He is overly excited but also a little nervous never having been a vendor before in the bustling marketplace.  

Father and son have great success selling their baskets of fruit and with the money they earn Father purchases a lamb to take back to the village.  Everyone in the village is looking at the lamb as they arrive home and Yamo walks the lamb along the village street with his chest puffed up, so proud to be the new owner of something so precious and scarce in their village. 

Then you get a shock......

The author pens a note to the reader at the end of the book explaining that the story is based on a real-life village he visited during the tenth year of the war.  This book opens up a dialogue about war and peace and how blessed we are to live in a country (if you do) where you are safe and able to live a productive, happy life with your family.  I highly recommend this book.  It creates understanding and empathy towards other who live in countries who struggle each and every day to survive...  if in fact they do.  Heartbreaking.  A story that needs to be told and discussed. 

Storywraps Rating - 5 ++ HUGS!!!!!

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Meet the creator of the book

Yutaka Kobayashi (1946–) is a Nihonga artist and picture-book creator. He decided to become an artist while studying in England after graduating from Rikkyo University. In 1979, his very first submission was accepted for the Japan Fine Arts Exhibition (Nitten), and in 1983 he received a Special Excellence Award in the Ueno Royal Museum Grand Prize Exhibition. He is a frequent visitor to the Islamic countries of Asia and the Middle East, and treats subjects taken from those visits in his paintings and picture books. His Kuraudeia no inori (Claudia's Prayer; text by Yasuko Murao) received the Japan Picture Book Awards Readers' Prize in 2008. Sekai ichi utsukushii boku no mura (The Most Beautiful Village in the World) and Boku wa otōto to aruita (I Walked with My Little Brother), which portrays two children seeking refuge from fighting in wartime, have been selected for inclusion in elementary school textbooks. These and other stories told through the eyes of children from other cultures have received wide acclaim. 

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