From far-off lands to the White House

May 21, 2006|Liz Rosenberg

Picture the World: Children's Art Around the Globe
Edited by Tracy V. Spates
Milet, 63 pp., ages 5-9, $24.95

Presidents of the United States
By the editors of Time for Kids with Lisa deMauro
HarperCollins, 70 pp., ages 7-11, $17.99

What I love about nonfiction -- and I suspect the reason so many readers are drawn to the genre -- is that one learns something new and concrete with each book. I believe I learned at least one new thing on every page of this month's nonfiction books. I'm sure I could not say the same of adult nonfiction. And because these books are geared to young readers, the learning happened without struggle, but with humor, anecdotes, lucid prose, engaging images and illustrations. Even Alice, of Wonderland, who found her sister's books so dull -- ''without pictures or conversation" -- would undoubtedly have relished these books.

''Picture the World: Children's Art Around the Globe" is a slightly misleading title, since the book celebrates art and culture in eight countries: Japan, Ecuador, India, Russia, Turkey, Kenya, Vietnam, and the United States. This is a wide and generous selection, but hardly ''the world." Nonetheless, it offers a great deal of information about each country, and the children's own art, in particular, offers a glimpse straight into the heart of each. Editor Tracy Spates maintains a nice balance between the factual material and the children's renderings, each complementing the other. I learned, for instance, both by looking at a map and by reading, that Japan consists of ''over 6,500 volcanic islands off the far-eastern coast of Asia" and that ''bridges and tunnels link the four main islands." I discovered that the Moon Viewing Festival is held ''when there is a full moon at harvest time, in September," while admiring a beautiful Moon Viewing Festival painting by 8-year-old Ryo Asada.

One reads about Turkey's mosques and sees photographs of the intricate tiles from the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, but even more vivid is a 7-year-old orphan's painting of a ''night drummer" who rouses Muslims during Ramadan to remind them to eat breakfast before the day's fasting begins. I was also told, rather oddly, that our Fourth of July is ''always celebrated with fireworks and picnics, and children love to be taken to amusement parks, where they can go on all kinds of wild and exciting rides." I am hopeful that the information given about other countries is more accurate.