A multicultural cast of children greets readers in Stojic’s (Snow, below, etc.) expressive offering. Thickly applied with broad, textured brushstrokes, Stojic’s acrylic portraits welcome a youngster’s participation. “Aloha!” and “Kiana!” they say. Below, bright bands anchor the page with text—each greeting appears in large, black print above its phonetic pronunciation. A side note identifies the language (Hawaiian and Inuktitut). Later, a quartet of portraits provides a linguistic comparison as all four children—Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, and Swedish—pronounce their greeting the same (“Hay”); except for the Swedish “Hej” the spellings are the same too (“Hei”). As in Rain (2000), which looked at life on the African savanna, Stojic once again explores world culture. Her opening note offers encouragement (“If you meet people who speak French, don’t be shy—they will love to hear you greet them in their own language”). But some languages are elusive. It would be helpful, for example, to know where in the world people speak Guajajára, Dinka, and Hiri Motu. Still, this is a good choice for fostering global awareness and children will enjoy meeting children from around the world in Stojic’s joyful paintings. (Picture book. 4-7)
