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When I Grow Up, I Will Win the Nobel Peace Prize    by Isabel Pin Amazon.com order for
When I Grow Up, I Will Win the Nobel Peace Prize
by Isabel Pin
Order:  USA  Can
Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2006 (2006)

* *   Reviewed by Kerrily Sapet

'When I grow up, I will love my neighbor.' But for now, I enjoy torturing my sister. 'I will protect the environment and help save our planet.' But for now, I like to break sticks off trees and use them in sword fights with my friends. 'I will be brave in difficult situations.' But for now, I am afraid to admit that it was my soccer ball that broke the window of a local café.

These lines, and many more, make up Isabel Pin's book, When I Grow Up, I Will Win the Nobel Peace Prize. As the main character and narrator of the book navigates his day he must deal with pesky older sisters, classmates who greedily hog the colored pencils at art, and elderly women struggling with heavy grocery bags. Although in each of these situations he knows what he should do, things aren't always that easy. Instead he plans what he will do as an adult. He knows that he will achieve wonderful things and hopes to win the Nobel Peace Prize. At the end of the book he realizes that with so much to do, he should get started.

Isabel Pin's fun illustrations tell the true story, showing that what the little boy is doing now is not quite in line with his noble plans for the future. She offers a brief history of the Nobel Peace Prize at the end of the book, along with a list of some of the most famous recipients. While the underlying principle behind this book is wonderful, this reader wasn't endeared to the main character. There was little to show his transition from thinking great deeds to performing them. Despite the lack of development in the book, children will have a good time pointing out the boy's naughty behaviors and wondering what they too can achieve.

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