YOUNG PERU: Children of Peru at Work and Play

Emphasizing the contrasts between regions and peoples, between rich and poor, this comes out as a cross section of child life in a complex country, more important for what it illustrates and implies than for concrete information. There are specifics--on education, for instance, but what impresses are the scenes of children in an overcrowded classroom writing on the floor, of children with no classroom learning in a vacant lot. Also covered in some detail are Indian and Catholic traditions and festivals. But much of the book is a candid look at kids selling papers or washing cars in the city, bringing home firewood by burro or carrying little sister in a sling in the country, or, in a different vein, practicing to be a matador, preparing to launch a caballito de totora (little reed horse) on Lake Titicaca. All, in short, relevant and/or characteristic--a nice job of assemblage.