Review by Booklist Review
This appealing, oversize book explores the foods and dishes associated with a number of countries around the world. The format is simple: Malerba presents a simplified map of a continent with food highlights, mostly drawn and labeled, along with several food factoids. The pages following the continent explore the cuisine of several of its countries, again with a rough outline of the country filled with small drawings of its different dishes, produce, and animal life. Some items will have an additional squib of description, which, although not intensively informative, is still interesting. The book is not comprehensive; while all the countries in North America are covered, not all countries are explored in other continents, and Central America is left out completely. Clearly, Malerba selected countries with some familiar food items, while others are very different from anything average U.S. students may have encountered. While the country pages are so packed with drawings that they can be a little hard to absorb, this will nevertheless be fun for food-obsessed little browsers.--Scanlon, Donna Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-This enticing oversize book covers ancient and modern fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, seafood, and meat from all regions of the world, from humitas in Ecuador to yemista in Greece and tandoori chicken in India and wontons in China. Full-page spreads depict maps of the countries, speckled with the dishes eaten there. Each spread includes an introductory paragraph that offers general information on the cuisine of the region (for instance, cured pork, potatoes, cereal, and fish are common in Germany). Playful illustrations accompany brief descriptions of the foods. A pronunciation guide, however, would have been helpful. -VERDICT A browsable book that will spur discussion and lead to a greater awareness of cultural differences.-Sharon Verbeten, Brown County Library, Green Bay, WI © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Picture the endless variety of foods that make up the world's menus.Small, labeled images of various nations' main food products, including grains, meats, fruits, fish, vegetables, and dairy products, are scattered over 41 country maps and nearby bodies of water. Due to lack of room or perhaps poor design, popular dishes are placed outside the country's borders, often within the landmass of an adjoining or nearby country, providing very perplexing impressions. For example, the page for Argentina shows the food products (Pampas cattle, sweet potatoes, wheat, etc.) within the Argentine border and the popular dishes (such as the dessert dulce de leche and the "national dish" of asado, "flame-grilled meat") outside the national border. The inclusion of nonfood marine animals such as whales and dolphins is both unfortunate and confusing. The book is organized by region, and several individual countries are featured in each section. European countries predominate in this Italian import. Minimal coverage is given to the African continent, but unusually, Madagascar is included. The book could be a visual feast, but due to the sheer amount of poorly presented graphic information, it ends up a jumble. The notions of "slow food and slow fish presidiums" are inadequately explained. There is no index and no references, highly inappropriate for this informational text. Readers can browse but cannot easily find information that they may want to revisit. A scrumptious concept but overcooked. (Nonfiction. 8-11) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
