Sarah Jones, author of A Kids Book About War, talks about the complexities of global conflict and what actions you can take to ensure your voice is heard by your local government.
Sarah Jones, author of A Kids Book About War, talks about the complexities of global conflict and what actions you can take to ensure your voice is heard by your local government.
A Kids Book About War (view book)
Full Book Description:
This is a kids book about war. Really! It helps explain what war is, why wars start, and what happens after a war. In light of all the current global conflict, this felt like the right book to create and just give away so kids everywhere can find some answers to their questions about war.
About the Author:
Sarah Jones is an Emmy award-winning on-air reporter, producer, videographer, and editor with a passion for attracting young audiences to hard news.
*If you want to be on a future episode of A Kids Book About: The Podcast or if you have a question you’d like us to consider, have a grownup email us at listen@akidsco.com and we’ll send you the details.
A Kids Book About: The Podcast
S2 EP023, Sarah Talks About War
[INTRODUCTION]
Matthew: What is War?
Julia: War is like when they go on a special stage and they try to fight.
Jonah: War is when countries or people kill and fight each other. And… yeah.
Sarah: Ah, War is a lot of things, but, and to summarize what it is technically is, is when groups of people, um, usually with weapons, and sometimes it's countries and it's at least two (but it can be more), involve in a conflict.
So the way that I try to say it is diplomacy. It's a big word, but it means when people talk. So if you see the state department or a foreign minister, they're talking. But when talking isn't what's happening between countries or between groups, and there are weapons involved, that's what we call war.
Matthew: Welcome to A Kids Book About: The Podcast! I’m Matthew. I’m a teacher, a librarian, and I’m your host. The voices you heard at the top of our show were from Julia, Jonah, and Sarah.
Each week we talk about the big things going on in your world with a different author from our A Kids Book About series.
Sarah: Hi, I'm Sarah Jones and I'm a journalist, which means I cover, uh, what's happening in the world and different places. And I sometimes go there to cover it. And I share that on the news. You may have watched that at night and when they do television news primarily.
Um, And then I am the author of A Kids Book About War.
[TOPIC FOUNDATION]
Matthew: Listener, today’s topic is big. And with a topic so big, it can feel like finding a way in to explain and explore is really, really difficult. So let’s start at one of the first questions people ask when they learn of a war happening: why?
Why do wars happen?
Sarah: I fundamentally, like I thought about this before we were writing the book and the basic thing that I can bring it down to is power.
People may call it religion. People may call it ideology, which means, um, a set of beliefs that people have. That's what ideology means. Or they may say it's about getting more land.
But at the end of the day, that always translates to power or money or resources.
So, in my honest opinion, and I've covered a lot of wars, it's always about power.
Matthew: So if wars are started for different reasons, even if they’re all different ways of saying “power”, and if wars are happening all over the world and across time and with different groups of people, it makes sense that wars don’t all look the same, right?
Sarah: Yeah. Uh, they don't all look the same and that's what was one of those things that was interesting for me when I was writing this book is you have something like the Cold War, which I definitely want you guys to Google to learn about that.
Nothing was fired.
There is also, um, you know, sometimes people attack, or countries attack, through using the computer to get money or get information. And we in the United States actually don't have any set of rules about when that becomes. Uh, an act of war.
Then you also have, um, civil wars, which aren't more than one country. It's within a single country that there are mainly at least two big groups, uh, fighting.
So, And again about power. but, um, yeah, So it can, it can look different ways.
And I, I think your generation, you guys are going to see it evolve in a different way.
I pray that it's one with less, um, casualties, but I don't know. That's why I think this book is so important because you can never start talking about these things too early. And, you know, maybe this generation that's reading about it now will be the one to do things a little differently.
Matthew: Sarah used a word there and I want to make sure that it’s one you understand. The word “casualties” sometimes gets misused by grownups. Here’s how Sarah defines the word.
Sarah: Oh, that's a good question. Casualties. Um, mean, So a lot of people get this wrong, so I'm excited that you asked this. A lot of people think casualties are only when people die. That is not true.
Casualties also include when people are injured. So that's important to know because it can be injured or deaths.
Matthew: The start or ending of a war are rarely clearly defined. Often a lot of things happen that lead to a war starting. And just because a side declares victory does not mean that all conflict suddenly and entirely stops.
Sarah: People will say that there is a clear start and beginning because history books, if you look up a war, they'll have a start date and end date.
Personally, I don't necessarily agree with that because I think you have something I call underlying causes, so what I mean by that is reasons that people get upset enough or crave enough power to want to start a war. Sometimes that's because they remember how they were hurt in the previous war. Or they remember that things were taken away from their family in a previous. So to me, that's a reason that maybe they will get angry when they grow up to start another war.
So I don't think there's a clear beginning and end, but the history books will put a beginning and end from when, you know, the first, um, gun or was fired, or sometimes it's a bomb, which is, um, kind of a big blast that is, is dropped.
Uh, So, history books will have a beginning and an end, but I think the human part of it, which is really tied to it, is usually further back in history and further back in the future, too.
[LISTENER QUESTION]
Matthew: Julia, from Maryland, sent in this question:
Julia: When was the first war?
Sarah: Julia, that is a very good question. And I did not know the answer because adults do not know everything.
So I had to look it up. And what I found is that even the adults that should know, do not know the answer. So basically what we know is that the earliest record of a community of people goes back to a time which is 2300 BC. So 2300 years before Christ is what the time period is. And it was a place called Mesopotamia, which is now in Southwest Asia.
Okay. So if you look at the map of Asia would be like the Southwestern part of it. So the bottom, you know, kind of right-hand side of Asia, um, And that's the earliest documentation we have of a group of people. And in that early record of a group of people, we have the earliest record of war.
So basically I think it's safe to say battles, which are small wars, have been going on since, as long as humans have, but maybe your generation can change it. Nothing's impossible.
Matthew: So many of you have so many questions about war, which is why we’ve made A Kids Book About War available for absolutely free to everyone, everywhere. Download it. Read it together. Ask questions.
And while you do, check in with yourself. Talking about war is more than likely going to make you feel a certain way and for any number of different reasons.
It’s a great time to check-in with all of you listening, so do me a favor? Turn to someone who is listening with you. And if you’re listening alone, you can always turn to me and share your answer aloud.
How does thinking about war make you feel?
Julia: Um… sad because I don’t want them to fight and I don’t want them to hurt themselves.
Jonah: Thinking about war makes me feel sad and makes me almost want to cry because of how sad it is and people dying.
Sarah: I mean, war is a big, a big and complex thing for adults to understand, even when you covered them.
So there are a lot of ways to feel. And my big thing is I always say, “All feelings are valid”, so there's, you may feel nothing. That's okay. You have a right to feel whatever way you feel.
I would say covering wars for every time that I have seen, um, tragedy, which is something like really bad that makes you feel sad or feel, um, hurt like emotionally.
I also see people who are doing good and two are selfless, which means doing something for someone else without getting anything back from it.
So, you know, if people are starving because they, the bombs don't allow them to go to get food because there's no grocery store because the grocery store is bombed, sometimes people that have very little food, we'll share it with a stranger so that stranger has food too.
And, you know, I think. I think humans, we have this power in our souls that are innately good. I think we are good, no matter what underneath. Sometimes people do bad things, but we all have the ability to do good and that makes me feel hopeful.
Matthew: We will be back in a minute with more from Sarah Jones, including what it looks like for a journalist to report on a war as it's happening. Right after this quick break.
[BREAK]
Matthew: Welcome back to A Kids Book About: The Podcast. On today’s episode we’re talking about war with A Kids Book About author Sarah Jones.
Sarah is a journalist who, at times, reports on wars happening around the world. Without journalists, it would be much, much more difficult to know what is going on. And without news sources we can trust, it becomes even more difficult to really know what is happening in our own backyards, in neighboring cities and states and countries, and around the world.
Sarah: So I want to say that the most important thing I think you should know is that while some journalists come in from other countries, there are, those journalists can leave.
There are a lot of journalists that are from that country that are risking their lives to make sure we know what is happening in the world. And that's why I say journalism is so important, because when you know what's happening in your world, then you can make decisions about what you want to do.
Do you want to contact a politician? Or write a letter to the president? Or do you want to, uh, start a protest?
You know, when you know what's happening, you can make decisions about how to live your life. And these journalists take training. So, uh, there's something called HEFAT, which is hostile, which means like a dangerous, um, environment, first aid training.
So they learn how to take care of each other and themselves in dangerous areas. I've been trained on that.
You also have gear that kind of looks like a military person. So you have a helmet that protects you and something called a flak jacket, which is a bulletproof vest.
And then also you normally, um, something across you that says press so people know your media, but unfortunately the world has changed in the last 10 years and sometimes that wording becomes a target to people who want to hurt journalists.
It didn't use to be like that. People used to know that if they talk to a journalist, people will hear what they have to say. but unfortunately, um, that changed a little bit with some of the terrorist groups.
Matthew: I bet Sarah would tell you that she doesn’t always know where a lead, or a story, or an interview will go. How fitting, then, that that’s exactly how this book came together.
Sarah: All I'm going to say is it's Mr. Rogers and Twitter. So, um, I'm not gonna lie. I was over at my parents and I had just watched a documentary about Mr. Rogers. And I looked at my parents and I said, if Mr. Rogers was still around, our world would be so much better, which is something I say all the time because Mr. Rogers explained sometimes the things that are really hard to have conversations about like war to, um, kids of all ages in a way that, you know, you're safe and okay. You understand what's happening in your world. So you have power because you know something.
So, I literally went on Twitter right after, which is like for social media. And I saw a tweet from, Jelani saying, “I'm thinking about writing a book about war”. So I wrote back to him and said, “I would love to learn more.” And he called me and we did it all in like a week.
So it was a lot of work, but I'm so excited to see that people are reading it. And I've heard that people all the way in South Sudan and in Europe are downloading it to read it. And I'm just so proud of all of you who want to learn and have this conversation.
Matthew: One superpower so many kids share is the ability to see someone in need and ask, “How can I help?” Maybe you’ve even been thinking along those exact lines as you’ve been listening today.
Sarah: think the best, First of all, you guys are doing awesome by even hearing this conversation or having these conversations to learn what war is at such a young age.But one thing I feel that we, as adults, could do more is listened to you guys. And the reason I say that is because you guys have this very pure view of the world.
And I think sometimes when grownups have jobs and they have to make money and there's so many things adults have to do, we forget the importance of family or love, or just these basic things that we need for survival.
So sometimes I think if we listen to you guys more, we'd do better jobs as grownups and remember to share and remember to play nicely. Everything that you learn in school, but I would love to hear what you guys think are solutions.
I mean, some things that you can do, whether it's about war or anything else is if you live in a place like America, where you vote for the president and you vote for politicians, that's called a democracy, then you can write a letter to whoever is elected official for your state.
So you can ask your mom and dad to help you find who your state representative is, or your state Senator. And their job is to serve you. Their job is to do whatever the people in their state want them to do the majority.
So if you write to them and say, “I live here and I think you should do this for these people or help these people.”
If enough people say the same thing, they have to do it. That's the beautiful thing about living in a country like America, because not everybody can do that. In other countries, you can't say anything against the people that are elected or the government. They will hurt people for saying things, but here you have that power. So use it. You’re powerful.
Matthew: There is no way we could cover all that war is or war means or how war affects people differently and for different reasons, but you can keep asking questions. That is a power you’re born with. You also have the power to feel, and that’s something that will take you very far in this world.
So, before we go, here’s Sarah with some final words saved just for you.
Sarah: I just want to say that I know emotions can, or feelings can feel big.
And I know for me personally, sometimes I struggle to find the words to say how I'm feeling and that's okay. I found one thing that helps is sometimes drawing how you feel or moving around and showing how you feel.
But I think it's important when you read something like this, um, or talk about something that feels big to go to the grownups in your life that you trust and share those drawings or share those feelings, even if you don't have full words for them, or you can even make up words for them, you know, but I think it's important to talk to the grownups that you trust and tell them what's on your mind.
And they can have those conversations with you.
And sometimes they don't have an answer right away and that's okay too cause sometimes we grown ups don't know everything, but they can at least know how you feel and what you're thinking and can try and find answers for you when they know the answer. So, you know, I just, it's important to talk and communicate.
And if you guys have questions about war or this book, you can also ask, um, the parent in your life to send a tweet to me or A Kids Book About, and I'll try and make sure I get it and answer it.
And hopefully that, that adult in your life can share the answer with you.
[CLOSING]
Matthew: Thank you to Sarah Jones, author of A Kids Book About War, for joining us today. You can learn more about this book and download your free copy by visiting akidsco.com. When you do, you can also make a charitable donation to UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, or War Child.
Thank you to Julia and Jonah for adding your voices to the show.
Julia: Hi, my name is Julia. I am 6 years old. I live in Maryland. And my favorite thing is dogs.
Jonah: Hi. My name is Jonah and I am 11 years old. I live in Maryland and my favorite things are making edits on YouTube and playing Fortnite with my friends.
Matthew: Want to be on a future episode of A Kids Book About: The Podcast? Write to us or record a message and email us at listen@akidspodcastabout.com.
A Kids Book About: The Podcast is written, edited, and produced by me, Matthew Winner, with help from Chad Michael Snavely and the team at Sound On Studios. Our executive producer is Jelani Memory. And this show was brought to you by A Kids Podcast About.
Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or wherever podcasts are found and check out other podcasts made for kids just like you by visiting akidsco.com.
Join us next week for a conversation about death with A Kids Book About author Taryn Schuelke.