This is article is by Publisher Spotlight’s Special Projects Librarian Tracy Gallagher.
November 21st, 2022 is the 50th Annual World Hello Day which invites everyone to participate by just saying hello to ten people today. It was begun in 1973, in response to the Yom Kippur War. Its purpose is to encourage communication, rather than force, to settle conflicts. Since 1973, it has been observed by people in 180 countries.
Interested in participating? Here are some titles from our publishers that will help!
The first is from Tiger Tales Books’ 360 Degrees imprint. Hello World is written by Jonathan Litton and illustrated by L’atelier Cartographik. This title, on sturdy pages, has flaps to guide the reader through pronunciations on ways to greet in over 150 languages. Sidebars offer additional information regarding the regions of the world as well as the languages spoken. Readers will want to return to this title over and over to peruse all the tiny details.
Next up is Children of the World, also from 360 Degrees, written by Nicola Edwards, and illustrated by Andrea Stegmaier. With an emphasis on how children are alike around the world, this title teaches how to greet one another in 14 languages. Demonstrating what life is like throughout the day provides insights into the differences as well as similarities we have to experience in our diverse world. And isn’t that a precursor to peace?
Got a younger audience in mind? Check out this series of board books from Barefoot Books: Our World. While they don’t specifically mention “hello” each title is created by an author and illustrator who have personal experience with each country in the series. Each book contains vocabulary words with pronunciation guides and is designed to portray daily life for a child. These titles were created to increase global awareness for infants and toddlers, and they will be adding more countries in future seasons.
How hard can it be to Say Hello? Well, for Little Fox and Mr. Wolf it is very hard indeed! One missed opportunity to say hello to his new neighbor turns into an awkward situation for quite some time as each of them is too embarrassed to make the first move. Use this Berbay Books title, written and illustrated by Sung Mi Kim, to show kids that even adults can make mistakes and that we can all learn from them.
And, while we have been focused on saying hello, let’s remember to add a polite ending to our day with help from Good Night, World. This Tiger Tales title, written by Nicola Edwards and illustrated by Hannah Tolson, offers sweet illustrations highlighting children from all around the world getting ready for bed with the same activities such as bathing, brushing teeth, cleaning their rooms, and sharing a story. And it teaches how to say good night in 12 languages in a picture book format.
And with that we say both hello and good night.