Catherine Saunders

Anew edition of a 1995 favorite, this volume will draw in today’s children with the immediacy of its photos of 44 international children.

Six sections feature, in turn, North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Southeast Asia and Australasia. Each begins with a generalized two-page spread of information including a “fact file,” a large map, headshots of each region’s children, a famous place (the usual suspects, such as the Grand Canyon and the pyramids), one animal, and a food item. Profiled children are presented in large active photos (set on white backgrounds in familiar DK style) with smaller images of family and home, favorite activities, typical foods, toys, and, often, pets. Each child’s signature (in appropriate writing systems), the word(s) for “hello” (with pronunciation), small maps (difficult to make out), and facts about their localities are also included. Text is limited to short paragraphs and photo captions. It is the engaging photos that pop, showing children in both contemporary, Western-style dress and traditional clothes still worn for special occasions. There are nuclear, extended, single-parent, and divorced families; Alonso from Mexico has a sister who has a wife; Morgan from France is the son of a mixed-race couple (living separately); Andre, of Australian Aboriginal descent, lives with his grandparents; New Zealander Jamie has a Maori mother and white father.

More important than ever to combat intolerance and encourage interest in readers’ young peers, this highly visual overview is well worth the update. (Nonfiction. 8-11)… (more)