CHILDREN ARE CHILDREN ARE CHILDREN

Children are children are children. . . in Brazil, France, Iran, Japan, Nigeria, and the Soviet Union, the six countries the authors have chosen to ""explore"" by way of sampling their ethnic ""activities."" Cole et al., whose non-geographical suggestions in A Pumpkin in a Pear Tree and I Saw a Purple Cow struck us as both offhand and obvious, here include a map, a few words of the language, remarks on school, culture, and (especially) holidays, and a general (and generalizing) introduction to each of the countries; ""France is rich in history and art, . . ."" Japan ""a land of contrasts,"" and--with bland political insensitivity--Iranians' lives ""have greatly improved"" due to reforms carried out by the present Shah and his father before him. As for the activities, readers are urged in the second person (perhaps teachers are to pass along the suggestions verbatim) to ""catch your own butterflies"" as they might in the Amazon region of Brazil, to ""be an Impressionist"" by painting the same scene at different times of day (or to emulate Seurat by using paint, chalk, or ""punch-out dots""), to make natural dyes as Iranians do for rugs, to put on a make-believe Persian wedding, hold a Japanese tea ceremony, make a Nigerian dashiki, etc. There are recipes too, variously simplified. The whole book seems a compilation of suggestions tossed off at a teachers' workshop and yet to be weeded or refined.