Abstract

In this article the reviewer considers the main strands of Marek Michalak’s book under the title The Order of the Smile – a Common World of Children and Adults. The book was published in Warsaw by the International Chapter of the Order of the Smile in 2020. In the book the author raises a few strands which are developed separately from each other. The first strand consists in a scientific (pedagogical and psychological) considerations of the selected questions related to the functioning of children in the world of adults; the second strand involves references to legal decisions regarding subjectivity, responsibility, rights, and duties of children; the third strand presents to readers the phenomenon of an international institution – the Order of the Smile; finally, the fourth strand refers to the pedagogical legacy of Janusz Korczak. Each of the above-mentioned strands is cognitively valuable in itself, however, the book seems to lack a distinct connecting element that would, in a synthetical way, put together all those strands. The reviewer suggests that the role of the connecting element might play the concept of the child welfare.