Talking Walls: Discover Your World

Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People —NCSS/CBC

Mom’s Choice Award, Gold

American Bookseller “Pick of the Lists”

Boston Globe Top 25 Non-Fiction Children’s Books, 1992

ALA. Booklist, Starred Review

Horn Book, Noteworthy Book, 1993

TALKING WALLS: Discover Your World, by Margy Burns Knight and illustrated by Anne Sibley O’Brien, introduces young readers to different cultures by exploring the stories of walls around the world and how they can separate or hold communities together. Full-color illustrations. This is an updated edition (2014) and a new trim size. More than 165,000 copies sold!
Margy Burns Knight has received the National Education Association’s Author-Illustrator Human & Civil Rights Award for the body of her work with Anne Sibley O’Brien (Talking Walls and other books) and the 2001 Children’s Africana Book Award for Africa Is Not a Country (also illustrated by Anne Sibley O’Brien). In addition to her work as an author, presenting in hundreds of classrooms around the world, Margy is also a teacher and community volunteer. She is the Service Learning Coordinator for the Winthrop, Maine, public school system and has taught English as a Second Language to high school students from Cambodia, Afghanistan, and Jordan.

Anne Sibley O’Brien has illustrated thirty-one books, including five titles by Margy Burns Knight. She is also the author of fourteen of these books, including The Legend of Hong Kil Dong: The Robin Hood of Korea and A Path of Stars. O’Brien’s passion for global subjects was kindled by her experience of being raised bilingual and bicultural in South Korea as the daughter of medical missionaries. The mother of two grown children, she lives with her husband on an island in Maine.
"Best Multicultural Book” - Publisher’s Weekly

“Noteworthy Book from Parallel Cultures” - Horn Book

“Knight has found a powerful theme for introducing children to the world and its diverse cultures.” - Booklist starred review

“An unusually attractive book that wisely allows readers to draw their own conclusions.” - Kirkus Reviews

“Links to social studies abound. A great read-aloud and a unique source of hard-to-find material.” - School Library Journal