A Family in Chile

School Library Journal

ea. vol: 31p. maps. (Families the World Over Series). CIP. Lerner. Apr. 1986. PLB $8.95. Gr 3-5 Ho-hum. Four more titles in a series whose content is basically lacking. This series continues to be plagued with the assumption that a visit to a single family in a country portrays the typical way of life. One can only hope that authors and publishers will sometime realize that it is virtually impossible to generalize accurately about an entire nation. The color photography is excellent, but the photos have no captions, leaving readers to tie them to the lackluster text. Each book ends with a facts page and a world map showing the location of the country. Surrounding countries are not named. . . .Chile does have a pronunciation guide for the Spanish words, but . . .Brazil makes no mention of the Amazon Valley or that Portuguese is the official language until the facts page. The ``We Live in. . . '' series (Bookwright Pr) has a slightly higher reading level, but it does a much better job of portraying the various cultures and ways of life within a given country. Eldon Younce, Harper Elementary School, Kans.