How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World
by Marjorie Priceman
rating: 5 of 5 stars

Little Cherub loves baking, books about baking, and - apparently - books with leopards in. This ticks all her boxes. It is also a wonderfully clever take on teaching where different items of food come from. Both fun and educational.

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Mama Panya's Pancakes: A Village Tale from Kenya by Mary Chamberlin

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

I ordered this from the library because Little Cherub loves pancakes. When it arrived it looked too wordy and "old" for a nearly two year old, and she showed no interest. After sitting in her book basket for a couple of months she suddenly latched on to it and has wanted it re-read regularly. I don't know how much she gets of the story, but it is a lovely book for illustrating generosity. A Kenyan boy goes shopping with his mother and ends up inviting all their friends for pancakes. His mother worries that all their food will be used up, but the friends all bring a little something with them. At the end there are notes on Kenyan village life, animals and plants to look for in the illustrations, and Swahili words and phrases. A book we will come back to again later, I'm sure.

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Encyclopedia of the Nations

I found an excellent online geography reference site this week: Encyclopedia of the Nations.

The Encyclopedia of the Nations is a complete source for detailed information about one hundred ninety three countries in the world, information about the United Nations and the associated agencies, and World Leaders.

There is a section that focuses on the history and the development of the United Nations, its structure and purpose, developments by each of the United Nation's generals, and the achievements in the fields such as security and peace between nations.

The detailed nation profiles are categorized by continent and alphabetically arranged and consist of information about each country such as the population, history, ethnic groups, culture, language, transportation, government structure, technology, and contain notes about museums, media, libraries, technology, and much more. We also have information about national economies of most countries in Africa, Americas, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe which include the overview of economy, economic sectors, agriculture, poverty and wealth, working conditions, imports, exports, manufacturing, and much more.

Make sure to also vist EveryCulture.com for detailed information about countries' cultures and FoodByCountry.com for recipes and other information for every country.

If you want to find a list of famous Brazilians, native plants of New Zealand, or the population of Togo, this is the place to look! I haven't checked out the Culture and Food sites yet, but they sound interesting.

Geography picture books

I am on a roll ... more library finds, this time with geographical themes. I am on a mission to find books that will bring the world alive to Little Cherub once she grows into them. I used many of the books from these series with Star, and intend to use them again with Little Cherub. I discovered that Barefoot Books publish a number of books set around the world, including these by Laurie Krebs:

We're Riding on a Caravan: An Adventure on the Silk Road
We All Went on Safari: A Counting Journey Through Tanzania
We're Sailing to Galapagos: A Week on the Pacific
We're Sailing Down the Nile: A Journey Through Egypt
Off We Go to Mexico: An Adventure in the Sun

I saw the first two, which looked lovely - good illustrations, simple rhyming text, and some extra background information at the end.

The Barefoot Books catalogue includes a number of other appealing titles, like these:
My Granny Went to Market: A Round-the-World Counting Rhyme by Stella Blackman
Catch that Goat: A Market Day in Nigeria by Polly Alakija
Tenzin's Deer: A Tibetan Tale by Barbara Soros
Elephant Dance: A Journey to India by Theresa Heine

Ack! That wishlist!

In the Steps of St.Paul

At Shrewsbury I spent some time browsing in a second hand bookshop (bliss! no comments of "Mum ... hurry up!" or "oh no! not another bookshop!") and found a book that immediately jumped out at me as a living book: In the Steps of St.Paul by H.V.Morton. It is part travelogue, and part biography of St.Paul, written in 1936, and I was surprised and pleased to find it is still in print. Here are the first couple of paragraphs as a taster:

I went on deck before sunrise. The storm had backed to the north-west, the sky was clear, and the ship rolled in a long, sullen swell. I hoped to see the pin-prick of the lighthouse on Mount Carmel, but we were still too far from land.

St.Paul must have known this moment: the grey light, the last star, the cold wind, the fusty cargo, the smell of beasts and tar, the movement of the mast against the sky, the smooth pressing forward and the rhythmic hiss of water running back along the sides of the ship. It was good to stand on deck, thinking that this ship might be the Castor and Pollux.

And there I was, 20 pages into the 800 plus of Rebecca Fraser's A People's History of Britain, which I have been meaning to read for ages, and now I am distracted. Tantalisingly, a number of Morton's other books are also still in print. Titles include In the Steps of the Master, In Search of England and A Traveller in Italy. I think I may be off on a pre-war geographical rabbit trail.

My ecological footprint

I am reading a book about living in an ecologically and ethically responsible way (the title escapes my foggy brain) and was inspired to check out my "ecological footprint". Apparently it takes 3.6 hectares of land to keep me in the style to which I am accustomed. Not bad compared to the average for someone living in the UK of 5.3 hectares, but not good considering that there are only 1.8 hectares of productive land per person when the earth is divided between its entire population. I suspect the plus points in my favour are that there are five of us living in one house, I rarely drive alone, and I also walk quite a bit. On the other hand we eat a fair amount of meat, and are not very energy efficient.

Being the curious person I am, I input exactly the same answers but pretended I lived in the USA, somewhere with the similar weather to New York. Converting the European hectares (hectares? what are hectares?) to imperial acres, here is a breakdown of the two results.

UK
Average footprint 13.2 acres
My footprint
- food 3.7
- mobility 0.7
- housing 2.2
- goods / services 2.2
giving a total of 8.8 acres

USA
Average footprint 24 acres
My footprint
- food 4.9
- mobility 0.7
- housing 6.7
- goods / services 6.7
giving a total of 19 acres

If everyone lived like the real, British me, we would need 2 planets; if everyone lived like the imaginary, American me, we would need 4.3.

Take the Earth Day Ecological Footprint quiz here.

Book Review: Daughter of the Wind

Title: Daughter of the Wind
Author: Suzanne Fisher Staples
Age Suitability: Young adult

I borrowed this book from the library in my quest to find "living" geography books and skimmed through to see whether it would be suitable to read to Angel. It isn't. It is too mature in content, both in certain specifics and overall. There are references to childbirth, miscarriage, physical changes at puberty and attempted abduction, all of which are "older" than I would choose to read to her. The book is set among the nomads of the Cholistan Desert in Pakistan, and the plot hinges on the arranged marriages of the main character Shabanu and her sister, Phulan. Gloria Whelan's Homeless Bird also tackled arranged marriage, but in a much gentler way. This book is quite gritty. Although I didn't read it in its entirety I was gripped by what I read - enough so to go back and read sections to fill in bits of the plot. The author is a former press correspondent in Asia who writes of what she knows and writes well. It isn't a comfortable culture, particularly for girls, and the book is not a comfortable read. Worth considering for young adults, but not suitable for younger children.

Geography books from Frances Lincoln

I have a favourite picture book publisher: Frances Lincoln. Over years of borrowing from the library I noticed that when I found a new book I particularly liked it often came from this publisher. The three non-fiction books on India I read with Star all come from separate "world cultures" series published by Frances Lincoln. Searching through their website I have come up with what I think is a full list of the books published to date:

Alphabet Books
A is for Africa by Ifeoma Onyefula
B is for Brazil by Maria de Fatima Campos
C is for China by Sungwan So
I is for India by Prodeepta Das
J is for Jamaica by Benjamin Zephaniah
W is for World: a Round-the-World ABC by Kathryn Cave

Child's Day Books
Bongani's Day by Gisele Wolfsohn (South Africa)
Boushra's Day by Khaled El Dash (Egypt)
Cassio's Day by Maria de Fatima Campos (Brazil)
Enrique's Day by Sara Andrea Fajardo (Peru)
Geeta's Day by Prodeepta Das (India)
Huy and Vinh's Day by Jim Holmes (Vietnam)
Iina Marja's Day by Jaako Alatalo (Lapland)
Nii Kwei's Day by Catherine McNamara (Ghana)
Polina's Day by Andrey Ilyin (Russia)
Yikang's Day by Sungwan So (China)

Child's Visit Books
Prita Goes to India by Prodeepta Das
Shan-Yi Goes to China by Sungwan So

I may not make it through all these with Star, who is at the upper end of the age range for them, but in a few years I can work my way through the list with Little Cherub.

Geography Games

Look what I just found ... lots of online geography games. Locate countries, learn capitals, explore geographical regions. Have fun! Off to see how many African countries I can put in the right place. (What do you mean, it's supposed to be for the children?)

Next Year: Geography

For geography we have a world tour to finish. Three years ago we studied Europe, two years ago North America and last year South America, Australasia, Japan and China. This year we will visit the Indian sub-continent, Africa and the Middle East. We are also going to take a side-trip into mountains and volcanos (on the pretext of reaching the Himalayas).

The lack of good books with a geographical theme is a bugbear of mine. Compare the amount of good historical literature for children, both fact and fiction, with books about the world as it is now ... glut and famine! Yes, there are many books about specific countries, but very few are what I would call "living" books. They convey information, but rarely bring a country or a culture alive. Travel books form a whole genre of adult literature, yet there are hardly any written for children. I am gradually compiling a list of living books for geography studies, but there are still gaps - the biggest being the lack of any up-to-date narrative survey that would provide a good geographical spine (I'm thinking of a geography equivalent to history books like Story of the World or From Sea to Shining Sea.)

Angel and Star will be covering the same topics - more or less - but with books pitched at their own level. I will be browsing through a number of country specific books with Star, but Angel will be doing her own research on specific topics using reference books and the internet. These are some of the books I have in mind (picture books for Star are largely dependant on what is available through our library):

GENERAL RESOURCES
Kingfisher Encyclopedia of Lands and People
Ultimate Atlas of the World
Children Just Like Me (DK)
Country specific books from library

INDIA
Angel:
Homeless Bird by Gloria Whelan
Mother Teresa by Elaine Murray Stone (part of her religion studies, but ties in with the Indian theme)
Star:
I is for India by Prodeepta Das
Geeta's Day by Prodeepta Das
Prita Goes to India by Prodeepta Das
Stories from India by Anna Milbourn
Premlata and the Festival of Lights by Rumer Godden
What's Their Story?: Gandhi by Pratima Mitchell
Mother Teresa by Demi

MOUNTAINS
Both:
The Mountain Book by Brian Knapp
Volcano: the Eruption and Healing of Mount St.Helens by Patricia Lauber

AFRICA
Both:
Hippos in the Night by Christina Allen
Angel:
Journey to Jo'burg by Beverley Naidoo
Out of Bounds: Seven Stories of Conflict and Hope by Beverley Naidoo
The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo
African Journey by John Chiasson
Kizito, Boy Saint of Uganda by Elaine Murray Stone (if I can find a reasonably priced copy)
Star:
A is for Africa by Ifeoma Onyefulu
Bongani's Day: From Dawn to Dusk in a South African City by Gisele Wulfsohn
Nii Kwei's Day: From Dawn to Dusk in a Ghanaian City by Francis Provencal
52 Days by Camel: My Sahara Adventure by Lawrie Raskin
Star of Light by Patricia St.John
A Saint and His Lion: The Story of Tekla of Ethiopia by Elaine Murray Stone

MIDDLE EAST
Both:
Ali and the Golden Eagle by Wayne Grover
A Kid's Catalog of Israel by Chaya Burstein
Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights trans. N.J.Dawood
Angel:
One More River by Lynne Reid Banks
? Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye
Star:
Boushra's Day: From Dawn to Dusk in an Egyptian City by Khaled Eldash
The Librarian from Basra: a True Story from Iraq by Jeanette Winter