At first glance, this looks like an ABC book, but the alphabet plays a distant second to a combination gazetteer and cultural geography. Each of 26 countries is covered in a spread that includes a greeting in the appropriate language, a map, and several full-color photographs of children in typical settings and situations; the result is an encounter with the local dress, transportation, and architecture, as well as a glimpse of the work and play of children. Ajmera and Versola offer a gold mine of interesting national nuggets--that Zimbabwe means "stone houses," that girls and women in Yemen decorate their hands with swirls of henna, that Budapest is really two cities, Buda and Pest, split by the Danube--and include concise regional and ethnic histories, with X standing for the "imaginary" country of Xanadu. A short fact sheet for every country relays one particularly fascinating item: the proportion of children to the population as a whole, giving readers instant understanding of population pyramids, e.g., Russia has 34 million children out of an overall population of 147 million, while Oman has 1 million children in a population of 2 million. A pleasing and hopeful book--sugar-coated as it may be--with a feel-good global outlook.

Designed to make children aware of belonging to an international community, Children from Australia to Zimbabwe: A Photographic Journey Around the World by Maya Ajmera and Anna Rhesa Versola combines lively photographs of children with maps of, and facts about, 26 countries. With admirable economy, the text outlines a child's daily life in each country, including its unique traditions and history.

Another title published in partnership with SHAKTI for Children, this photographic journal alphabetically introduces 25 countries to readers. Beautiful photographs of children at work, play, and worship accompany chatty paragraphs offering facts and tidbits about each country. Younger readers will enjoy Ajmera and John D. Ivanko's To Be a Kid (Charlesbridge,1999), another photo-essay celebrating the universality of childhood around the world.