Ethiopia (Cultures of the World)
Grade 6-9?A broad but thorough overview. Separate well-organized chapters cover the basics: geography, history, government, economy, lifestyle, religion, language, arts, leisure, festivals, and food. For example, the one on history traces Ethiopian history from early human ancestors to the new era of democratic reforms and the elections of the 1990s. Over 100 full-color photographs reflect the diversity of every segment of Ethiopian society. Additional bits of information on the capital city, Addis Ababa; Ethiopians abroad; and various facts and figures are included in over 20 inserts and several sidebars. The map included appropriately leaves out the new State of Eritrea, a province of Ethiopia before it declared its independence in 1991, but does not show the most recent federal regions. Some minor errors appear. For instance, the text states that Arabic and Italian are widely spoken in this country, which is not true. An important event, the coup d'etat of 1960, is omitted. Still, the book presents a wide-ranging look at this  nation that is not usually found in a single work. The treatment is more in-depth and more current than that offered in Dennis Fradin's Ethiopia (Childrens, 1988) and Ethiopia in Pictures (Lerner, 1988).?Gebregeorgis Yohannes, San Francisco Public Library, CACopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.