Pakistan

Children's Literature

It's quite a challenge to compress the complexities of history, culture, and geopolitics into a 40-page volume for young readers. For the most part, Britton accomplishes that adequately within the series format. The chapters on geography, economy, and people are overall precisely and clearly written, despite a few overgeneralizations that can be ascribed to the page limitations and the age of potential readers. Photographs illustrating the text show a range of settings, urban and rural, traditional and contemporary. The chapters on history, however, contain some material that is occasionally confusing, with the partition of the subcontinent, and the subsequent independence of Bangladesh, being dismissed in such shorthand that Pakistan seems to be ascribed nationhood far before its actual creation in 1947. No acknowledgments are made to consultants knowledgeable about the region. Index, glossary, and websites are included. Other titles in the publisher's "The Countries" series incude Afghanistan, Italy, Peru, and lots more. 2002, Abdo,
— Uma Krishnaswami