Eve Feldman

Birthdays! Celebrating Around the World is an informational picture book about how different countries celebrate birthdays differently. I enjoyed this book because not only was it informational and interesting, it was also worded as a poem. "Singing and banging with a stick, a choice of presents from which to pick." The other aspect of this book that I really enjoyed were the pictures. Each page was drawn by a different child from their perspective country. The children ranged from aged 8-13. The illustrations were beautiful and you could tell that each child really put their all into drawing their page. At the end of the book, the author went into detail about each country's birthday traditions, which I also enjoyed.… (mere)

I really enjoyed this book a lot because of the multicultural aspects of it. I enjoyed how each page was a different way of celebrating a birthday from a different country. I enjoyed how kids did all the illustrations from whatever country they were from. For example, China was a picture of a boy and his family eating noodles long and thin drawn by the 13-year-old boy. It was very interesting to see the different kinds of art the children from different countries could draw. I also enjoyed the writing in the book. I like how each countries birthday traditions rhymed with the next. Going from Nigeria where birthdays are any color, shape or spice, to Haiti where birthday rice is always nice. I thought the rhyming was a cute way to share birthday traditions of each country. My favorite rhyme was the end when they concluded the book by saying “celebrating life and birth- everywhere around the earth.” I think the main message of this book is to show kids that birthdays are celebrated all around the world, but each country may celebrate birthdays differently. I love how it shows different kids perspectives on their birthday in their culture so that readers can see a variety of culture and learn more about other countries while also enjoying a fun book.… (mere)