Europe

Children's Literature

Each of the nine chapters includes an overview that touches on the salient features of the continent. The overview page is facing a political map detailing principal cities located within larger divisions, rivers, substantive lakes, and faint suggestions of geographical features. Chapters cover the history; environment; people; culture and religion; natural resources; economy; the world's view of the continent, including current problems and unrest; the wildlife found there; and some issues that the continent will face in the future. This excellent series is distinguished by its numerous maps, which compare different aspects, such as population, topography, and income, across the countries of the European Union and Europe, in general. The book also includes graphs, boxed "fact files," and occasional boxed "In Focus" segments, which cover interesting sidebar information with more depth than the general text provides. Full-color pictures are fresh, interesting, and augment rather than merely reflect text. Back matter includes statistics about each country, a glossary, related informational sources, and an index. All in all, it is a solid, fair, and useful source of information. It is more suitable for an older audience than the "Continents" series (Weigl), which might be accessible as guided reading for children as young as 8 or 9, but more rightfully seems aimed at sixth grade and up. Part of the "Continents of the World" series. 2006 (orig. 2005), World Almanac Library, Ages 10 to 14.
—Susan Hepler, Ph.D.

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-These titles cover the history, environment, people, culture and religions, natural resources, economy, world politics, wildlife, and future of each continent. The format is quite attractive, with the text nicely arranged and a color photo, map, and/or graph on every page. "Fact File" boxes are prevalent, as are extensive captions. Special "In Focus" articles hone in on important topics in each chapter. The texts are well written, most of them containing a surprising amount of information, given the brevity of the books. Each title concludes with a statistical compendium for the continent. Europe is the only title with discernible errors. The communist regime of the Soviet Union was not overthrown-it collapsed. The text refers to Moldova, Romania, and Belarus as part of "former Eastern Europe." It also uses the term GDP, but does not define or list it in the glossary. Overall, though, these are good choices for collections in which current information is needed without a great amount of detail.-Eldon Younce, Harper Elementary School, KS Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.