Romania Poland Hungary Bulgaria

Gr 3—6—These books provide detailed information with mixed results. Poland and Hungary, first published in the Netherlands in 2004, have good-quality, well-chosen full-color photos that complement the texts. The narratives are interesting and flow smoothly. There is some concern about currency of information, but they fare better than Romania and Bulgaria, which were originally published in 2008. In Romania and Bulgaria, the photos are of similar quality but do not work as well with the texts. There are several discussions that beg for an illustration that is sadly lacking. (None of the books show a picture of the country's flag in the section that describes it.) In addition, some photos of people contain speech bubbles that appear to be an attempt at humor but do not mesh with the serious nature of the presentations. The texts are choppy and not engaging. All of the books contain information about the country's history, towns and cities, people and culture, education, cuisine, transportation, economy, nature, and tourism. Even with these concerns, the level of detail is good for report writers. Purchase if you need more resources about these countries.—Stephanie Farnlacher, Trace Crossings Elementary School, Hoover, AL