LOOKING AT HOLLAND: Looking at Other Countries series

This is a new series and the next two books will be Looking at Greece and Looking at Italy. The Looking quality is at the Life and National Geographic levels and the photographs outbalance the text making this good informational browsing as well as easy to absorb reading on homelife, education, transportation, industry, cities and towns. The always fascinating idea of a country dredging land from the sea is carefully explained in words, pictures and diagrammatic drawings. The series originated in England, but at only one point could we discover this to be obvious. The author points out in the text that the Dutch home does without airing-cupboards. This may be a shame, but even a call to the New York Public Library failed to enlighten us as to what an airing-cupboard is. There is a very good section that covers the digest history of Holland. The end papers feature maps which indicate air routes, harbors, the land below sea level and the location of major industries. The currency of the pictures and the facts makes this look like a winner in a rather crowded field for middle grade series.