Discover Poland

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5–Facilitating students who are doing comparative studies, the spreads in these broad surveys investigate the same topics, including “Population and Health,” “Employment and Economy,” and “Environment and Wildlife,” providing statistics in textual and graphic form along the way. Since they are so succinct, the books will work best at supplementing more in-depth titles with little morsels of information. For example, in Germany, the country’s entire military history is explained as follows: “Germany fought and lost in both World War I and World War II,” but in the same book, children can find a “Did You Know?” bubble on the history of cuckoo clocks, and Brazil mentions the government’s failure to finish the Trans-Amazonian Highway. Large, bright photographs and short bursts of text make these titles accessible and attractive.