United We Stand: America's War Against Terrorism

This book provides kids with in-depth information on the complexities of fighting terrorism today. While the author acknowledges that "some wars are bad and stupid", she also mentions that "other wars are fought for a good, valid reason".

Kids who are internalizing about the war on terrorism will benefit by doing the workbook pages. While some of the activities are simple, such as circling which words describe characteristics of a terrorist, others require deeper reflections, such as writing your feelings about war.

If your kids have read The Day That Was Different: September 11, 2002--When America Was Attacked by Terrorists, this book goes into greater detail about specifics and is a more intense read. If your kids did well with the first workbook, this book is a natural progression from the first one. If your kids feel overwhelmed by some of the content, this is a good stopping point. It is your decision, as a parent, whether to continue with the book, or better yet, continue at a later time or at the child's request. Often, war is a sad subject and a difficult subject to teacher to younger children. For families who have lost loved ones as a result of the war, this is a tough area to approach and often baby steps need to be taken when trying to answer difficult questions.

I think this book does a good job in promoting awareness of unfortunate stereotypes that kids (and grownups) can easily make by looking at pictures of terrorists. Author Carole Marsh discusses that how people look, dress and speak has nothing to do with whether they are good, bad, guilty or innocent. She reminds kids that many Afghans and Muslims have lost loved ones, and that most of these Muslims were American citizens. Good points and all well taken!

A brief overview of some ways that "war" is fought today and a discussion of chemical and germ warfare are also included. I think an important idea is to keep kids 9 years and older aware of situations as they develop and to assure them that they need not fear and worry needlessly. It's OK to be afraid, but life must go on as usual, or as close to usual as possible. A nice bonus this book offers: free updates and reproducible activities by going to the publisher's web site.

An excellent section deals with how kids can separate fact from rumor, opinion, and guesses. Even adults struggle with this age-old problem! There are many important tips to help kids distinguish between fact and rumor.

By reading this books, kids will get a better understanding of the war against terrorism, including who really is the enemy, what can be learned from other wars, more geography lessons, and how we know when we've won the war against terrorism. In 48 pages, the author covers a lot of ground and opens up the door to more discussions on how to understand and cope with the information we are given.

Kids will read that it's good to stay calm and help others (including their family), as well as expressing their opinions and their patriotism towards their country.

An appendix, glossary of acronyms, and bibliography page are valuable resources for kids, parents, and teachers who want to explore this subject more!