Editorial Review

Gr. 3-5, younger for reading aloud. With lots of big color pictures and a simple text, each photo-essay in the Faces and Places series introduces a country to a young audience. There’s a big clear map and then a double-page spread for each subject – geography, history, plants and animals, food, work, pastimes and holidays, etc. Some of the text is the usual generic stuff (‘The Polish people love to be outside…Family, friends, and education are very important to the Polish people’); but the specific details and the contemporary photos give a strong sense of both the places and the people who live there. The book Iran talks a lot about the politics, past and present, and makes clear that not all Iranians are the same. The books, which include a glossary and a list of Web sites, are a good starting place for report writing and for young readers interested in family roots and connections.