Bobbie Kalman,
What is Culture?; How are we the Same and Different?; What is  Religion?; We are the Earth (Our Multicultural World Series)
Crabtree Publishing, 2009.

Rating: G*

These four books comprise the series entitled Our Multicultural World.

What is Religion? begins with commonalities, symbols and names for the ten most prominent world religions. The holy books and places of worship for each religion are overviewed, and the rest of the book provides the story of each religion, with a description of its origin, and tenets of its beliefs.

What is Culture? begins with a broad definition, and then describes the separate aspects of religion, clothing, food, the arts and special celebrations in more detail. It finishes by conveying the message that within our diverse multiculture we all share the same basic needs and home, as well as the culture of peace.

How are we the Same and Different? similarly describes attributes all humans share - our physical selves, our human development, our connection to nature and our basic human needs. It celebrates our human diversity as well, both cultural as well as individual.

We are the Earth focuses on how life is sustained on Earth. It describes the ways that people can be connected to one another and to nature. The focus is on the gifts offered by Earth, and the importance of being thankful and grateful for these gifts.
All books are filled with many marge, captioned photographs and short paragraphs of information under large headings. They are very visually appealing and would be user friendly for most late primary and early intermediate readers. All have a table of contents, an index, and suggestions for further reading.

Thematic Links: Social Studies, Multiculturalism

Moira Kirkpatrick
Vol.14, number 5
June 2009

*Rating System:
E - Excellent, enduring, everyone should see it!
G - Good, even great at times, generally useful!
A - Average, all right, has its applications.
P - Problematic, puzzling, poorly presented.