Paths to Peace

Paths to Peace: People Who Changed the World

Written by: Jane Breskin Zalben

Published by Dutton Children's Books in 2006.

Teacher's Choice Award in 2007.

Educational, Fascinating, Historical, Informative, Insightful

Summary:
This book is about sixteen people in chronological order and how their lives led to a more peaceful world. Each person has a page written about them. The page begins with a setting of the time period and place. It tells about the person and what they did to make the world more peaceful. The sixteen people include: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ralph Bunche, Mother Teresa, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Anwar El-Sadat, Cesar Chavez, Elie Wiesel, Martin Luther King Jr., Anne Frank, The Dali Lama, Wangari Maathai, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Princess Diana.

Reading Levels:
Lexile Measure: 1150L
Grade Level Equivalent: 9.5
Interest Level: Grades 6-8

Electronic Resources:
Kids Need to Read
This link leads to a site that has quotes about peace from famous peace activists, like the one in this book. It also gives titles of other books about peace. This is useful for students who are interested in learning about peace.

Jane Breskin Zalben
This link leads to the author's website. She gives a blurb for all her books. She also has activities on writing, illustrating, and making poetry. This is useful for students who are interested in learning to write and like her writing style and for students who would like to read more of her books.

Teaching Strategies:
Teachers can use this story for social studies as a lesson about people who made the world more peaceful.

Suggested Delivery:
I would use this book as a read aloud because there are many difficult concepts that may need to be further explained.

Key Vocabulary:
Transcendentalism, Philosophy, Resonates, Nuclear, Encapsulated, Humanitarian

Reading Strategies:

Before Reading:
Have students discuss who and how people changed the world through peace. Can they think of any people on the top of their head? Did they think of some people that are not in the book?

During Reading:
Have students discuss how the quote relates to the page on each person. How does the quote specifically describe the famous person?

After Reading:
Have students discuss all the ways that people changed the world through peace. Are there some people that they think affected the world more positively than others?

Writing Activity:
Have students pick a person from the book and research more information about them. Write a paper about the person using information they have found without plagiarising that was not in the book.