We Are Many
We Are Many by Dave Cameron and Suharu Ogawa is an interesting and thought provoking new story about people .
A group of children are in the park playing with a ball. When one captures the ball, the others pile on top, laughing and enjoying the game. Then, the grown ups show up and join the pile. Have the grown ups taken over? Why is the pile so big? Why is the game changing? All questions to explore before, during and after reading.
Dave Cameron has created an interesting and quirky story. Children are often found running around, playing and ending up in a big pile. Why do the adults get involved? On the surface, it’s a silly story about people piling on top of other people until the pile topples over. Underneath it’s an excellent story to talk about groups, societies and the ways in which we interact with each other.
Many big questions can come out of We Are Many. This is a story not just for young readers but also for older readers, especially teens and young adults who are studying history, societies and psychology. Readers can also use this story to examine how people act when they are in a group versus how they act when they are on their own, how our behaviour is greatly influenced by the people around us.
Ultimately, it’s the children that figure things out as children tend to be much smarter than grownups in these situations. They start the game again and with their strong feelings of social justice and their desire for play, the story ends on a hopeful note.
Another way to explore and use the story is from a math lens. The piles are always getting bigger and smaller, they are multiplying and dividing. It would be fun for teachers to use this story in a math lesson and get their classes up, moving about and making piles of their own.
Suharu Ogawa’s illustrations are beautifully colourful, vibrant and eye catching. Each people pile is filled with a diverse array of characters mimicking the way that societies are built. There are people of different colours, abilities, even fantasy characters thrown in the mix. Her illustrations make this story hard to resist!
