Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Travel the World: Sneak Peek at Christmas


Lankford, Mary D. Christmas Around the World.

Twelve countries are visited in Mary D. Lankford's picture book Christmas Around the World. Australia. Canada. Ethiopia. Germany. Great Britain. Greece. Guatemala. Italy. Mexico. The Philippines. Sweden. United States--Alaska. Each country receives a two-page spread. One page being devoted to text. The other page being an illustration by Karen Dugan. Overall, I think this is an interesting read. The book also includes a few crafts, a bibliography, and even a pronunciation guide.

This title is appropriate for third graders on up (or second graders with advanced reading abilities).


Kelley, Emily. 2004. Christmas Around the World.

This book is part of the "On My Own" holiday series. It is a book designed for children--kids--to be able to read on their own. That seems so obvious, doesn't it. Yet when I was looking at my local library, there were few books I thought were really appropriate, really accessible to young readers. There were many great books to choose from. But they all seemed more appropriate for children in upper elementary school. Those in fourth and fifth and sixth grade. This title, on the other hand, looks accessible to younger readers, second graders on up. There are fewer details perhaps. But the book still serves an important purpose: showing kids that though some things may be different between cultures, there are always similarities as well that unite us. The countries "visited" include Mexico, Ethiopia, China, Germany, Lebanon, Sweden, Australia, and Russia. Note: to make these books even more appealing to kids, the author has included a few pages of Christmas jokes and tongue twisters.

Coming Soon...

November 28th: France and Spain
December 5th: Germany
December 12th: Italy and Switzerland
December 19th: Brazil and Australia
December 26th: Scotland and Greece

2 comments:

useektravel said...
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Ladytink_534 said...

That sounds really interesting! I've always loved books like that.