Appreciation for Thailand’s heritage will quickly follow the reading of this book.
Detailed cultural information about a country that most people in the U.S. may only know about through its food.
Thailand is a country rich in tradition, folklore, visual arts, music, and dance as well as culinary treats, and this volume provides access to a wealth of background material, stories, and hands-on projects and activities. One of a series of books on Asian cultures, this includes recipes for such dishes as sticky rice with mangoes and Thai chicken noodle soup (made with rice noodles), which follow a description of the importance of rice in the Thai diet. A description of Loi Krathong, the floating-lantern festival, is presented after a double-page spread on religion. Sheet music for a song and the instructions for making a special floating lantern are included, along with information on the flying-lantern festival, Yi-Peng, celebrated in northern Thailand at the same time, during the full moon of November. A spectacular photo displays the golden flying lanterns sent up to carry wishes to the Buddha. Other photos are used occasionally throughout the book, but most of the illustrations have an attractive, brightly colored, cartoonish look. Although other resources will be needed to give a picture of Thai history and the current social, political, and economic situations, this compendium will serve children, educators (formal and informal), librarians, and parents well.
Appreciation for Thailand’s heritage will quickly follow the reading of this book. (bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8048-4427-7
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Tuttle
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
Go adventuring with a better guide.
Find something to do in every state in the U.S.A.!
This guide highlights a location of interest within each of the states, therefore excluding Washington, D.C., and the territories. Trivia about each location is scattered across crisply rendered landscapes that background each state’s double-page spread while diminutive, diverse characters populate the scenes. Befitting the title, one “adventure” is presented per state, such as shrimping in Louisiana’s bayous, snowshoeing in Connecticut, or celebrating the Fourth of July in Boston. While some are stereotypical gimmes (surfing in California), others have the virtue of novelty, at least for this audience, such as viewing the sandhill crane migration in Nebraska. Within this thematic unity, some details go astray, and readers may find themselves searching in vain for animals mentioned. The trivia is plentiful but may be misleading, vague, or incorrect. Information about the Native American peoples of the area is often included, but its brevity—especially regarding sacred locations—means readers are floundering without sufficient context. The same is true for many of the facts that relate directly to expansion and colonialism, such as the unexplained near extinction of bison. Describing the genealogical oral history of South Carolina’s Gullah community as “spin[ning] tales” is equally brusque and offensive. The book tries to do a lot, but it is more style than substance, which may leave readers bored, confused, slightly annoyed—or all three. (This book was reviewed digitally with 12.2-by-20.2-inch double-page spreads viewed at 80% of actual size.)
Go adventuring with a better guide. (tips on local adventuring, index) (Nonfiction. 8-10)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7112-5445-9
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Wide Eyed Editions
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
As better pictures are available and the humor is too heavy-handed to add style points, that dismissal can serve for this...
An irreverent introduction to China’s long line of emperors, with sidelong glances at life in the outsized but cloistered imperial palace.
The simply phrased answer to a modern child’s titular question offers a jumble of general observations about forms of address, ceremonial duties, imperial officials and consorts, how members of the imperial family were educated, what they ate, and what emperors were expected to do and be. Readers will likely come away more confused than enlightened. The Forbidden City itself, built about 600 years ago, is neither mapped nor described here in any detail; such terms as “eunuch” and “consort” are defined long after they are first used (if at all); and Chinese expressions are discussed (and in one case translated two different ways) without being actually shown. Thick-lined cartoon figures in traditional dress, many with almost identical features, add a comical flavor. They pose on nearly every page with captions and comments in speech balloons that have, to say the least, an anachronistic ring: an emperor’s whiny “I’m stressed out,” is echoed a few pages later by a trio of “pregnant imperial consorts” racing to produce the first-born child; and the deposed last emperor, Puyi, closes with a casual “See ya!”
As better pictures are available and the humor is too heavy-handed to add style points, that dismissal can serve for this whole sloppy effort. (website) (Nonfiction. 9-11)Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9893776-6-9
Page Count: 108
Publisher: China Institute in America
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
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