Costa Rica Greece Haiti Kenya Afghanistan Iraq Iran Pakistan Denmark Switzerland

Gr 2—3—These profiles offer healthy but easily digestible doses of specific information about each country's major geographical features, wildlife, human populations, schools, festivals, and characteristic foods in a colorful, visually appealing format. Oversimplified maps aside, the presentations are much enhanced by plenty of bright color photos in various sizes and placements, pie charts showing where residents live and what kinds of work they do, and closing spreads of basic statistics with images of flags and currency. Ancient and recent history get only a few passing references, and while readers may be confused by an unexplained reference to "damaged buildings" in Afghanistan, the Taliban is mentioned, as is war in Iraq and Pakistan. Despite these issues and an account of the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the overall tone of the series is upbeat.—John Peters, formerly at New York Public Library