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Unequal Planet by Anna Claybourne
The Blurb On The Back:
Unequal Planet
If everyone on Earth was equal, we would all have the same standards of living, opportunities, wealth, health and other factors that make our lives different. But this isn’t the case, the world is not an equal place and many people experience great inequality in their lives.
UNEQUAL PLANET looks at the reasons behind global inequality - from where people are born, to their income, to the impacts of climate change, and suggests some positive, practical solutions to this complex and challenging issue. It also explores what we can all do to help make the world a more equal and better place.
Anna Claybourne is an experienced writer of non-fiction for children. This is a solidly written book for readers aged 9+ that’s part of a series about issues related to the planet and explains what inequality is and how it can come about. Claybourne breaks down complicated ideas in an unpatronising way, but while it generally gets the balance right there are times when it’s a little over-simplified and too broad.
Claybourne opens by discussing what equal and unequal means in practice, which is quite broad but gives an idea of different kinds of wealth and how they interact with each other. There are also explanations for what money is and the difference between wealth and income before going on to explain differences between rich and poor countries. Again this is all quite broad but I think that’s unavoidable as there are complicated ideas here and they need to be broken down in order for readers to follow them.
The book then goes into the kinds of resources that countries can have and how this ties in to history and colonialism and empire. Claybourne offers a case study on this with a look at Haiti, its history and how events have helped to keep it in poverty. To be honest, I thought that this was one of those instances where the generality of the descriptions didn’t really explain the current poverty because it skips over events of the last 20 years and so makes it seem as though the country’s problems are all rooted in the past when there’s a lot that’ still going on. There’s a later case study on Norway, which seeks to explain why it’s rich, which similarly fails to consider factors such as stable governments, tourism and its membership of the European Economic Area. Again, I understand why Claybourne can’t go into detail but
The book is better in explaining what debt and international debt is, but I also think it misses a trick because it neglects to mention that a large chunk of third world debt was written off after a campaign at the beginning of the century and yet those countries remain poor. Similarly in the section on inventions and technology, there’s no consideration of how some poorer countries engage in or encourage IP theft or promote the use of generic products and the impact that has in terms of sale of international goods.
The summary of inequality within society is clear and I liked the fact that it goes into different kinds of inequality and how it ties in with human rights. I also liked the section that looks at the impact of climate change on inequality (which ties in with one of Claybourne’s previous books, SUSTAINABLE PLANET). The case study used here on the Torres Strait islands is more useful here although again, I think there could have been a bit more on pressures on internal infrastructure caused by land erosion.
The sections on how to tackle inequality are considered and I liked the focus on taxation and welfare, which I think is an important plank for trying to redistribute wealth. Similarly, the section on international aid is useful but it does miss out that international aid can also be used by rich countries as a way of exerting pressure and influence. I think that Claybourne makes interesting points about the importance of education and knowledge in lifting poor countries out of poverty but again, misses out the fact that educated workers frequently move to richer countries to improve their condition and I would have liked some mention of that but of how the resulting remittances back can help to improve things.
The final section on what readers can themselves do to reduce inequality seemed to me to be a bit too advanced for the age group (e.g. discussing voting or moving accounts to financial institutions with ethical banking), although it is all well-intentioned.
All in all, I know this sounds like I have a downer on the book, but that’s not the case. In terms of being an introduction to what is a very complicated topic with a lot of causes and contributory factors it’s inevitable that this is not going to be in depth or comprehensive as it could be. For the most part, I think Claybourne gets the balance right here and there’s certainly enough information here to give readers a flavour of the different factors involved. As such I think that it’s a solid introduction to the topic and a good way of initiating further conversation with young readers who want to know more.
The Verdict:
Anna Claybourne is an experienced writer of non-fiction for children. This is a solidly written book for readers aged 9+ that’s part of a series about issues related to the planet and explains what inequality is and how it can come about. Claybourne breaks down complicated ideas in an unpatronising way, but while it generally gets the balance right there are times when it’s a little over-simplified and too broad.
UNEQUAL PLANET was released in the United Kingdom on 10th August 2023. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
If everyone on Earth was equal, we would all have the same standards of living, opportunities, wealth, health and other factors that make our lives different. But this isn’t the case, the world is not an equal place and many people experience great inequality in their lives.
UNEQUAL PLANET looks at the reasons behind global inequality - from where people are born, to their income, to the impacts of climate change, and suggests some positive, practical solutions to this complex and challenging issue. It also explores what we can all do to help make the world a more equal and better place.
Anna Claybourne is an experienced writer of non-fiction for children. This is a solidly written book for readers aged 9+ that’s part of a series about issues related to the planet and explains what inequality is and how it can come about. Claybourne breaks down complicated ideas in an unpatronising way, but while it generally gets the balance right there are times when it’s a little over-simplified and too broad.
Claybourne opens by discussing what equal and unequal means in practice, which is quite broad but gives an idea of different kinds of wealth and how they interact with each other. There are also explanations for what money is and the difference between wealth and income before going on to explain differences between rich and poor countries. Again this is all quite broad but I think that’s unavoidable as there are complicated ideas here and they need to be broken down in order for readers to follow them.
The book then goes into the kinds of resources that countries can have and how this ties in to history and colonialism and empire. Claybourne offers a case study on this with a look at Haiti, its history and how events have helped to keep it in poverty. To be honest, I thought that this was one of those instances where the generality of the descriptions didn’t really explain the current poverty because it skips over events of the last 20 years and so makes it seem as though the country’s problems are all rooted in the past when there’s a lot that’ still going on. There’s a later case study on Norway, which seeks to explain why it’s rich, which similarly fails to consider factors such as stable governments, tourism and its membership of the European Economic Area. Again, I understand why Claybourne can’t go into detail but
The book is better in explaining what debt and international debt is, but I also think it misses a trick because it neglects to mention that a large chunk of third world debt was written off after a campaign at the beginning of the century and yet those countries remain poor. Similarly in the section on inventions and technology, there’s no consideration of how some poorer countries engage in or encourage IP theft or promote the use of generic products and the impact that has in terms of sale of international goods.
The summary of inequality within society is clear and I liked the fact that it goes into different kinds of inequality and how it ties in with human rights. I also liked the section that looks at the impact of climate change on inequality (which ties in with one of Claybourne’s previous books, SUSTAINABLE PLANET). The case study used here on the Torres Strait islands is more useful here although again, I think there could have been a bit more on pressures on internal infrastructure caused by land erosion.
The sections on how to tackle inequality are considered and I liked the focus on taxation and welfare, which I think is an important plank for trying to redistribute wealth. Similarly, the section on international aid is useful but it does miss out that international aid can also be used by rich countries as a way of exerting pressure and influence. I think that Claybourne makes interesting points about the importance of education and knowledge in lifting poor countries out of poverty but again, misses out the fact that educated workers frequently move to richer countries to improve their condition and I would have liked some mention of that but of how the resulting remittances back can help to improve things.
The final section on what readers can themselves do to reduce inequality seemed to me to be a bit too advanced for the age group (e.g. discussing voting or moving accounts to financial institutions with ethical banking), although it is all well-intentioned.
All in all, I know this sounds like I have a downer on the book, but that’s not the case. In terms of being an introduction to what is a very complicated topic with a lot of causes and contributory factors it’s inevitable that this is not going to be in depth or comprehensive as it could be. For the most part, I think Claybourne gets the balance right here and there’s certainly enough information here to give readers a flavour of the different factors involved. As such I think that it’s a solid introduction to the topic and a good way of initiating further conversation with young readers who want to know more.
The Verdict:
Anna Claybourne is an experienced writer of non-fiction for children. This is a solidly written book for readers aged 9+ that’s part of a series about issues related to the planet and explains what inequality is and how it can come about. Claybourne breaks down complicated ideas in an unpatronising way, but while it generally gets the balance right there are times when it’s a little over-simplified and too broad.
UNEQUAL PLANET was released in the United Kingdom on 10th August 2023. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.