Summer Festivals

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5-- Multicultural seasonal approaches to holiday celebrations from around the world. Spring Festivals includes April Fools' Day, Purim, Holi, Passover, flower festivals, Easter, Ch'ing Ming, New Year's, Baisakhi, and Apoo, representing a diverse group of nationalities and cultures. In a similar manner, Summer Festivals discusses May Day, Workers' Holiday, Dragon Boat Festival, Solstice celebrations, O-bon, Chung Yuan, independence and freedom celebrations, New Start, Eisteddfod, and Notting Hill Carnival. Both titles feature lively full-color photographs and some black-and-white reproductions, which add enormously to the appeal. In both volumes, Rosen appears to hold closely to each group's beliefs in explaining its different ways of observing seasonal events, thus showing readers that they live in a world filled with variety and that all people celebrate life in their own unique way. --Eowana Bradley Jordan, Westgate Elementary School, Manassas, VA