A Family in Peru

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5 Like glossy snapshots, these books provide glimpses into family life in industrialized Japan and rural Peru. The Japanese family follows a familiar modern pattern: father works at a factory, mother works at home, and the two children attend school. The Peruvian family works together in an older pattern, making pottery beads and weavings to sell and tending livestock and crops. Enough details are illustrated to show the cultural differences between a middle-class family in Japan, a rural working class family in Peru, and the reader's own family. At the same time the universality of the family unit and its cohesiveness and importance are communicated. The high quality, often beautiful photographs amplify the brief texts (usually two to three paragraphs per page), especially pictures of two Japanese brothers sitting in their hot bath together, and all of the members of the Peruvian family working together to support the family. With pronunciation guides and fact summaries about each country, these introductions will be helpful. Frances E. Millhouser, Arlington County Department of Libraries, Va.