Books in Culture In . . . series

It's time to party with people around the world! Readers will want to celebrate with the fascinating, diverse peoples featured in this culturally enriching book. Da de los Muertos in Latin America, Festima in West Africa, Loy Krathong in Southeast Asia, and Japans Obon are just some of the festivals featured. Important vocabulary and cultural concepts are stressed in the accessible text, while striking photographs highlight important associated events.

Apartments, houses, log cabins, and houseboats are all kinds of homes, though they can look vastly different. Around the world, families settle into homes that can look quite different than these, yet serve the same purpose: to shelter. This volume will capture readers imaginations, allowing them to view various types of homes, including the yaodongs of China and Queenslanders of Australia. Beautiful photographs serve to illustrate both architectural and cultural concepts.

Did you know that Chutes and Ladders originated thousands of years ago in India? Or that playing cards have been around for centuries? Games have always been a part of many cultures as a way to entertain or pass the time. Young readers finally get a chance through this book to see and learn about popular games in other cultures, learning that we're not all so different, even though the games might be. No library or classroom would be complete without this book.

Young readers today are exposed to diversity that past generations could never have experienced. This book helps them understand how the simple act of communication happens throughout a wide diversity of cultures. By promoting an early interest in other cultures, these books strengthen young readers' understanding of their place in the global community, conveying the unfamiliar in a familiar way. Discussing diversity with young readers, each page has accessible, fun text and vibrant, full-color photography that pops off each spread to enhance comprehension of the subject matter.

Baking, salt-packing, pickling, frying, stewing, roasting, grilling. These culinary techniques are used in countries around the world today, but they each originated out of the necessity of a certain region and its people to create meals for themselves. Readers will be so enthralled, they won't guess they're learning social studies as they journey across the world from kitchen to kitchen through the pages this book. Accessible text and foreign-yet-familiar photographs teach how different and the same we all are when it comes to preparing food.