Better Together: Creating Community in an Uncertain World

by Nikki Tate

Better Together explores how people gather in groups of all kinds to fulfill the basic human need for companionship. From the smallest units of parents, siblings and friends to global organizations that try to build on a foundation of common human experience to meet their goals, people working together are a powerful force for change. Too often, we look at someone and see all the ways we are different. People all around the world come together to build things, teach and entertain each other, and provide everything from better health care to good food to security and education. Better Together examines the many ways we are the same, no matter where we live.

Genres: Nonfiction

48 pages, Hardcover

Published April 3, 2018

About the author

Nikki Tate was born in Birmingham, England, but spent her childhood roaming the globe. In Australia, Nikki battled a tarantula, in Banff she was chased by a mother black bear, and in Ontario she wrestled with a Canada goose.

Despite the fact that she has been kicked, bitten, stung, pecked, and sprayed, she has never been able to resist injured, lost, or lonely-looking animals. Over the years, her menagerie has included horses, dogs, cats, birds, snakes, squirrels, rabbits, rats, gerbils, spiders, crayfish, hamsters, and a pond full of koi fish. These critters and their antics often find their way into her stories. Not surprisingly, Nikki's favourite book when she was little was Black Beauty, though she also loved The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and The Hobbit.

Nikki has always enjoyed writing stories and still has the notebooks she used when she was eight years old. She made up stories about animals, plane crashes, outhouses, and Doctor Dolittle's travels in outer space.

A born ham, Nikki danced, acted, and modeled her way through her younger years. She still loves to perform, most often as a storyteller. She also enjoys camping, kayaking, horseback riding, travel, and building big things with sticks and string. Nikki lives on a tiny farm on Vancouver Island in British Columbia with a collection of furred, feathered, and finned creatures.

Reviews

[Rachel]

I had some high hopes for a book about building community for kids. Unfortunately, I'm still left wanting. While Better Together has some interesting pieces on different kinds of communities and bonds between community members, the book is more of a hodgepodge of paragraphs that don't really connect to each other in any significant way. The text is also peppered with life stories from the author (including paragraphs on how her daughter has a friend and how once the author sat with the popular girls once in school and decided she didn't like them because they only talked about boys and makeup) that are kitschy at best and off-putting at worst.

I took some issues with the content as well -starting off with chapter two's title "In the 'Hood" -
there are a lot of misses, especially when it comes to informing children and teens about how issues of discrimination affect communities and community members. For example, the terms racism and discrimination (both italicized in the text as words of importance) are first introduced in the context of a forced Chinese Canadian leprosy colony in British Columbia. As the author explains plainly, racism existed in this context because "Chinese immigrants weren't liked in Canada at the time..." (22). Okay...huh. How exactly does that teach kids about racism?
Another tone-deaf mention of race, racism, and created communities occurs in a section devoted to US race relations in which the author claims, "In the United States, tension between Caucasian Americans and African Americans has led to incidents of terrible violence" (32). I mean, you're not wrong...but slavery is not at all mentioned as a background or as a context in which racism has flourished in America and the modern world. I don't believe that the author's background, being English and living in Canada, is a justifiable reason for glossing over how racism has affected individuals and communities worldwide.

Overall, I felt the book was scattered and ill-presented. It might be a place to get some interesting topics for older kids to do a bit more research, but I wouldn't sell it as a stand-alone.

[Cat]

I liked this book. It would be a good study book for 7th grade up on communities. Nikki Tate as really done the research in covering communities I had never given thought, too- prisons, as a community? I guess so! Very interesting read for anyone. Photos tied the book together nicely, too.

I received a Kindle Arc in exchange for a fair review from Netgalley.

[Barbra]

Ages eight to twelve will learn about what makes a community; activism, safety, food, shelter, love belonging, and companionship. They will see photographs of real life children around the world. Filled with facts and sidebars this book would make a great addition to any school library.

[Brooklyn || The Wild Library]

I read & evaluated this book for the Vancouver Children's Round Table (VCLR)'s 2019 Information Book Award.

I found this series to be too text-heavy. This title's concept was a tad odd as well. I'm not sure the purpose of the book came through clearly.

[Ruth Ann]

Upper elementary through middle school.
Covers topics like family, adoption, race, tension, community, neighborhoods.
Lots of photos and graphics, this book is written in the first person.
Resources and index.