Birthday Customs Around the World (Pebble Plus: Happy Birthday!)

Worldwide

I enjoyed this short and informative book for a few reasons. First, I liked the photographs in the book. Including real photographs with people participating in the tradition that is being discussed adds a lot to the words. For example, on the page that discusses the Australian tradition of clapping for each year someone has been alive, a young girl is pictured with friends or family around her clapping. The photographs bring the traditions to life and make them seem more real for a young audience. I also liked the fact that the book had a simple glossary, list of books that expand on the topic, helpful internet sites, and an index in the back of the book. These few pages simplistically introduce the young audience to the helpful resources that many informational books have. They also help the reader in their understanding of an unfamiliar topic. Lastly, I appreciate the fact that this book makes readers aware of different cultures and their traditions. This book includes traditions from Australia, Canada, China, Mexico, and the Netherlands.

The big idea of this book is to discuss the birthday traditions that a variety of cultures have. ( )

SUMMARY: This book describes the different ways that people celebrate birthdays around the world.

REVIEW: I gave this book three stars because while it is an informative book for very young children, I feel as though it leaves out a lot of detail. This book provides an extremely simplified version of how birthdays are celebrated throughout the world, and what people do to celebrate this holiday. Even though this book is intended for younger children, I feel as though it could still provide more details. For example, the book states that: "Macey has a birthday party in Australia. Everyone claps six times for her six years." While this is an interesting tradition, I feel as though the book could provide at least one other thing that people do in Australia for this special celebration. ( )

I enjoyed reading this book because I thought it was informative for a younger age. The pictures are real photographs, which makes the book more engaging for younger readers seeing an age group they can relate to. I think that children would enjoy reading about how kids all over the world celebrate their birthdays. I also like the question it posing to the reader at the end. It asks the reader to say or think about their birthday customs, which would be a good sharing activity in the classroom, especially if I have students from different backgrounds. The main message of this book is to share with kids the different types of birthday customs celebrated all over the world. ( )

I really enjoyed this book for several reasons. I really enjoyed that the illustrations were actual photographs of real children. If there was a picture of a child from Brazil, the photograph was a real Brazilian boy, which I thought was really cool how there were so many different races and ethnicities throughout the book. I also liked how the book did not necessarily have a plot, it just showed different customs that people around the world do to celebrate their birthdays. For example, in Canada, they put butter on a kids nose to signify good luck. In Brazil, they give however many years old the kid is turning pulls on the kids’ ear lobe. It was just very interesting to read about the different customs people do around the world on birthdays. I think the overall message of this book was to show readers that people celebrate birthdays differently all around the world. I really enjoyed learning about different customs and traditions that take place in other places in the world. ( )