India – The Land of Festivals: A Monthly Guidebook to Diverse Celebrations (Indian Festival Series 1)

Written by Anuja Mohla

Illustrated by Gowthami Maruthapandiyan

This book contains a wealth of information with colorful illustrations about the diversity of life in India. The author covers each of the six major religions practiced in India. This book is organized by month.

Many of these celebrations, however, are based on the lunar calendar. Each page describes which religion is celebrated in that month and discusses the foods, rituals, customs, and types of celebrations. The reader learns native vocabulary and the significance associated with each.

This book is an excellent choice for teachers who want to explain Indian customs and culture and share multicultural traditions. Indian families can use it as a springboard to explain the rich culture of their homeland.

As a teacher, I appreciated the section at the end of the book that includes matching and recalling information about the festivals.

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The World is Our Playground Series Book 3: Nanak and Tara’s Philippine Adventure

Written by Jamal Kaur Singh

Illustrated by Ronald Santos

This is my first time reading a book in this series which encourages elementary students to learn about the history, customs, beliefs, traditions, and languages of countries around the world.

The picture book is richly illustrated in vibrant colors and the bold font of the text makes it easy to read. I particularly enjoyed the mini language lessons which encourage readers to communicate in an unfamiliar language while enjoying the adventure. Readers explore the islands while experiencing its history, foods, celebrations, and family ties.

There are questions at the end included to test comprehension of the story. The author presents a lesson plan before the story begins. Background about the series and its characters as well as a summary of the author’s mission comes at the very end.

The book is packed with useful information that children will enjoy. I would suggest putting that background at the beginning to familiarize new readers upfront and then including the lesson plan toward the end.

Highly recommended for parents and teachers to teach about other cultures in an entertaining format.

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Celebration Babies: Highlighting Special Events for Babies, Toddlers, and Children, from Around the World

Written by Stephanie Seidler

Illustrated by Pete Olcyzk

This picture book packs a lot into forty pages. The author covers countries from around the globe and their cultural celebrations. These include celebrations connected with religion, holidays, heritage, and environment.

The description mentions that the book is appropriate for babies and toddlers. While the illustrations will enthrall that age group, the vocabulary and length of sentences are too complicated for that audience. Parents and teachers will need to adapt it to make the concepts clear for them. I would suggest making the font of the text a bit larger so that new readers might be able to handle it better.

Nevertheless, this is a beautiful book to place on a parent or teacher’s bookshelf to celebrate the best of all our cultures and remind children of the beauty of diversity and multiculturalism. I especially recommend it for ages five through nine.

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