Synopsis
India is a country with over a billion people living in a land area one-third the size of the United States. It is a complex society in which the natural environment and the layers of many cultures are woven together to create the fascinating nation that is the subject of this book. Its history spans the Indus River civilization of 2500 B.C. to the nuclear age. Its geography encompasses the staggering peaks of the Himalayas in the north to the sandy beaches of Cape Comorin in the south. India is a country that the world cannot afford to ignore or to misunderstand. This book is a geographical journey through this complex, interesting, and exciting nation.
School Library Journal
Gr 7-10-This title does an adequate job of covering basic information. Chapters are devoted to India's physical environment, history, cultures, government, economy, major cities, and future outlook. There are occasional lapses in spelling and grammar, a few instances of confusing passages and of repetition between chapters, and infrequent factual errors. India has 28 states as noted in the "Facts at a Glance" appendix, although the text repeatedly says 25. Its population of more than one billion people turns up on one page as "100 million," and it was Chandragupta I, not II, who founded the Gupta Empire in A.D. 319. Each chapter contains some color photographs. The list for further reading consists primarily of adult books. Lee Engfer's India in Pictures (Lerner, 2003) covers much of the same ground in a more attractive and more tightly written manner.-Diane S. Marton, Arlington County Library, VA Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.