Country-by-country Guide (Our World)
Grade 3–6—This volume covers almost 200 countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, arranged by geographical regions. The author starts with an overview of each continent, highlighting special details about it, such as the highest peak and the largest city. Then, countries or regions within it are broken down for further study. The arrangement may lead to confusion for readers new to geography. For example, South America is divided into North Andean South America, Eastern South America, and South Andean South America. A table lists the area, population, and number of countries for each continent. The area, population, language, type of government, and currency for individual countries is similarly displayed. Children can learn about food, wildlife, historic places, sports, music, people groups, arts, architecture, and many other topics of interest. The writing can be a bit dry and generalized at times. The author writes about Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait, "These three countries all have vast deserts with large oil deposits." There are errors, such as "England, Scotland, and Whales [sic] make up Great Britain." (Wales is spelled correctly on the map.) Two of the country maps use a star to designate the capital cities, but Scotland's capital garners only a dot. Watercolor illustrations and hand-drawn maps featuring bodies of water, mountain ranges, and capital cities are scattered throughout. They are simplistic in style and coloring, with sparse detail. A full-color compendium of flags of the world, a general index, and a country index are appended. This is a serviceable title for browsing, but it is not an essential purchase.—DeAnn Okamura, San Mateo County Library, CACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.